NATO has temporarily halted operating in areas near the Afghan border with Pakistan. The spokesman for NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen Jacobson, told Shamshad TV that they had decided to restrict their operations in areas near the border of Pakistan temporarily after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an air attack of NATO. Pakistani officials have said that NATO forces attacked their military checkpoint near the border with Afghanistan early on Saturday, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 15 others.
Meanwhile, the international forces in Afghanistan said that they had started investigating into the attack and would announce the results soon. Gen Jacobson said NATO had decided to stop operating in the area close to the border until the investigation was complete. “We have restricted some of our military operations in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan because of the investigation. But our operations are conducted normally in other areas”. Afghan political analysts says the attack by NATO forces on the Pakistani checkpoint was the start of the action which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about when she said that “if Pakistan did not take immediate action against terrorists, we would”.
