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Pakistan condemns US air strike that killed 11 soldiers

Pakistan’s military condemned a “cowardly” US air strike that killed 11 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border yesterday, saying it could jeopardize cooperation in the “war on terror.”

The attack on a checkpost in Pakistan’s volatile tribal zone was the first of its kind since Islamabad joined Western efforts against the hardline Taliban movement in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

It heightened tensions between Pakistan and the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, which recently warned that the decision to hold peace talks with militants could increase cross-border infiltration.

A Pakistani army spokesman “condemned this completely unprovoked and cowardly act” and blamed the coalition for the “aerial attack” that destroyed a paramilitary post in the Mohmand tribal region, a statement said.

It confirmed that 11 soldiers were killed including an officer.

“The incident had hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in the war against terror,” it quoted the spokesman as saying.

Pakistan had lodged a strong protest with the coalition, it said.

Heavily armed local tribesmen brandishing rocket launchers and Kalashnikov rifles gathered near the checkpost in the mountainous Gora Prai area to show their support after the attack, residents said.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan referred queries to the US embassy in Islamabad, which in turn said that the Pentagon was dealing with the matter. The Afghan military made no immediate comment.

Pakistani security officials said the deaths came after Afghan troops crossed the porous frontier and tried to occupy the strategic Pakistani post in the troubled tribal belt, which borders eastern Afghanistan.

The post was in an area that has long been disputed between the two countries.

Meanwhile, hundreds of lawyers and political activists began a cross-country rally yesterday to press the new government to restore judges Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fired.

Lawyers have been at the forefront of a campaign against Musharraf since he tried to dismiss the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, last year.

Chaudhry and dozens of other judges were purged after Musharraf declared emergency rule in November.

The rally, dubbed a “long march” though the lawyers are traveling in a motor convoy, set off from the southeastern city of Multan bound for Islamabad, where they are due tomorrow.

Chaudhry addressed the lawyers before they left, calling for the independence of the judiciary in a country where all rulers have interfered with the legal system.
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