NATO choppers gun down 26 Pakistani troops in Mohmand

Only a day after International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Commander General John Allen discussed border control issues with Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) helicopter gunships on Saturday killed 26 Pakistani security officials and injured another 14 in a blatant attack on a military checkpost in Salala area of Mohmand Agency, dealing a serious blow to the already strained relations between Islamabad and Washington. An army major and a captain were reportedly among the dead. Reacting to the attack, the government registered its protest with Washington, NATO headquarters in Brussels and summoned US Ambassador Cameron Munter to the Foreign Office, with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani cutting his Multan visit short and returning to the federal capital to chair a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC).
On Gilani’s instructions, the foreign secretary called up US Ambassador Cameron Munter to lodge a strong protest over the incident. The foreign secretary told the US ambassador that the unprovoked attack by NATO/ISAF aircrafts on border posts had deeply incensed the government and the people of Pakistan. The attacks constituted a grave infringement of Pakistan’s sovereignty and were a violation of international law and a serious transgression of the oft conveyed red lines, the secretary said. Ambassador Munter expressed regret over the loss of life. “I have seen press accounts of an incident on the Pakistani-Afghan border in which Pakistani soldiers were reportedly killed. I regret the loss of life of any Pakistani servicemen, and pledge that the US will work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident,” a US embassy statement quoted Munter as saying. Later in the day, the US embassy directed all US officials outside Islamabad to return to the federal capital and also issued a travel advisory for all US staff in Pakistan.
The Balochistan government also barred NATO supply trucks and containers from entering into the province. The government of Balochistan directed the district administrations of Lasbela, bordering Karachi and Jaffarabad, connecting Balochistan and Sindh via Jacobabad, not to allow trucks and oil tankers carrying NATO supplies into Balochistan’s territory.
Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani had also strongly condemned the attack. According to the ISPR, General Kayani presided over a high level meeting of military commanders at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, declaring the NATO attack on Pakistani checkpost an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty. The meeting also decided to give strong response to the attack. Pakistan Army chief demanded NATO investigate the attack immediately. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the NATO-led ISAF said it was “highly likely” that NATO aircraft caused the deaths of 26 Pakistani soldiers in Saturday’s he lethal strike. Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson said that ISAF forces and the Afghan army were carrying out a joint operation in the eastern part of the Afghan province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan, when they were forced to call in air support.
“It’s highly likely that this close air support, called by the ground forces, caused the casualties,” Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told AFP of Saturday’s deaths. Jacobson added that the operation had been taking place very close to the porous, mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, known as the Durand Line. “They were operating very close to the Durand Line, and as we know, the Durand Line is not everywhere very clear” in the area, he added. Jacobson earlier told the BBC that the close air support had “obviously” caused the casualties. “A situation developed on the ground that caused the force to call in for close air support which came in and obviously this caused Pakistani casualties and that is what has to be investigated,” he said.