ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The deaths of 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers from U.S. airstrikes and artillery during a clash with insurgents on the Afghan border is likely to complicate the already strained relations between the two countries.
The incident on Tuesday night underscored the often faulty communications involving U.S., Pakistani and Afghan forces along the border, and the ability of Taliban fighters and other insurgents to use safe havens in Pakistan to launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
The attack comes at a time of rising tension between the United States and the new government in Pakistan, which has granted wide latitude to militants in its border areas under a new series of peace deals, drawing criticism from the United States. NATO and U.S. commanders say cross-border attacks in Afghanistan by insurgents have risen sharply since talks for those peace deals began in March.
Although Pakistani government officials softened their response through the day, the Pakistani military released an early statement calling the air strikes “unprovoked and cowardly.” Shaken by the initial Pakistani reaction, administration officials braced for at least a short-term rough patch in relations with Islamabad. “It won't be good,” said a Pentagon official who followed developments closely throughout the day.
The precise circumstances surrounding the deaths remained unclear, and U.S. officials said a U.S.-Pakistani investigation was expected to begin immediately.
But according to accounts from U.S. officials, the incident started when Taliban fighters from Pakistan crossed about 200 yards into Kunar province, on the Afghan side of the border, and attacked U.S.-led forces with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.
After coalition forces returned fire, driving the insurgents back into Pakistan, two U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter-bombers and one B-1 bomber dropped about a dozen bombs – mostly 500-pound munitions – on the attackers. An Air Force statement said the militants were struck “in the open and in buildings in the vicinity of Asadabad.”
A spokesman for the Taliban said their forces had attacked a U.S. and Afghan position near the border, and eight of their fighters had been killed and nine wounded in the fighting.
Before the airstrike, a Pentagon official said, U.S. forces alerted a Pakistani military liaison officer, trying to ensure that friendly troops were out of harm's way. But the Pakistani officer was either unaware that Pakistani paramilitary forces had moved into the area near the insurgents, or the Pakistani forces never got the word to get out of the way, U.S. officials said.
“They got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani denounced the attack in parliament and said he had instructed the foreign ministry to make a formal protest to the U.S. ambassador, Anne Patterson.
But the Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell, told reporters in Washington that “every indication we have at this stage is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defense.” U.S. rules of engagement bar American forces from crossing or firing into Pakistan except to protect themselves.
By yesterday afternoon, Pakistan's new ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, had softened his government's reaction, telling Reuters: “We do look upon it as not an act that should cause us to reconsider our partnership but rather to find ways of improving that partnership.”
Seth Jones, an analyst with the RAND Corp. who was conducting research in Kunar province last week, said: “It's almost surprising more of this hasn't happened given the vast amount of traffic across the border. This creates a real serious impetus for the U.S. to coordinate more closely with Pakistan forces.”
Indeed, U.S. officials in Pakistan and in Washington, while expressing regret at the Pakistani deaths, said the incident underscored the need to improve the equipping and coordination with Pakistani security forces operating near the border, including the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force of about 85,000 members recruited from ethnic groups on the border.
U.S. and Pakistani officials say the Frontier Corps, which is drawn from Pashtun tribesmen who know the language and culture of the tribal areas, is the most suitable force to combat an insurgency over the long term in the border region, where the regular Pakistani military often is not welcomed.
It was unclear whether the Pakistan liaison officer involved in the Tuesday air strike was from the Pakistani army or the Frontier Corps, an important distinction since the two security forces have not always worked together smoothly, U.S. officials said.
The Pentagon has spent about $25 million to equip the Frontier Corps with new body armor, vehicles, radios and surveillance equipment, and plans to spend $75 million more in the next year. Overall, administration officials have said the United States could spend more than $400 million in the next several years to enhance the Frontier Corps, including building a training base near Peshawar.
Until recently, the Frontier Corps had not received U.S. military financing because the corps technically falls under the Pakistani Interior Ministry, a nonmilitary agency that the Pentagon ordinarily does not deal with.
Tuesday's clash occurred at a border post called Chopara on the frontier with the Afghan province of Kunar, where U.S. and Afghan forces have battled insurgents for several years. The insurgents have been using Mohmand and the adjacent area of Bajaur as a base for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to discuss the incident with her Pakistani counterpart today at the Afghan donors conference in Paris, U.S. officials said.
Also yesterday, airstrikes targeting two militant leaders in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan killed 31 people, including several civilians, officials said.
Most of the 31 killed were militants, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. But Khalid Farooqi, a lawmaker from Paktika, said at least nine civilians died.
The U.S.-led coalition said four civilians were killed – three women and a boy.
It was impossible to verify the claims of numbers killed at the remote and dangerous battle site.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
