Pakistan has protested to Washington over the killing of two of its troops by US forces along the border with Afghanistan and said it would raise the attack yesterday with Afghan and US military officials.
The incident would be discussed at a meeting of a commission of Pakistani, Afghan and US officials formed to discuss the porous, ill-defined border and the hunt for fugitive extremists in the area, a military spokesman said.
"Whatever happens at the border comes up for discussion," Pakistan's Major General Shaukat Sultan told reporters.
Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and one was injured on Monday when US military planes, called in by ground troops patrolling the border in southeastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, opened fire on what were believed to be attackers fleeing towards the border.
The US military said its ground troops had been fired on during their patrol and the assailants fled towards Pakistan.
A spokesman for the US military's Central Command said it was unclear whether the Pakistanis were killed in the air attack or in exchanges of fire on the ground between US forces and the fleeing assailants.
"We don't know if it was the result of the close air support or if it was in a firefight between the bad guys that were originally identified and the coalition forces," said Commander Dan Gage.
Pakistan's military said US forces had "mistakenly" fired on the Pakistani patrol near Imal Khel post in North Waziristan tribal district.
"The Pakistani and US troops were on their respective sides," Sultan said.
"A strong protest has been lodged with the US authorities about the incident," he announced late on Monday.
The deaths were the first of Pakistani soldiers under US fire in the 20-month-old "war on terror."
The remote, deeply conservative North Waziristan region was a popular escape route for al-Qaeda fighters fleeing the US-led military assault in Afghanistan that followed the attacks and ousted the hardline Taliban regime, allies of al-Qaeda.
Pakistani human-rights officials have said hundreds of al-Qaeda fugitives took refuge in North Waziristan and South Waziristan in late 2001 and last year.
Eleven Pakistani troops hunting the extremists were killed by a band of al-Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan in June last year.
Military officials believe rebels loyal to the ousted Taliban militia, al-Qaeda and renegade Islamist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are operating a guerrilla insurgency against Western and Afghan targets out of the rugged Pakistani-Afghan borderlands.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese