Pakistan has protested to NATO over an "unprovoked and senseless" airstrike that killed its 11 soldiers deployed at a post along the Afghan border.
The protest was lodged by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on the sidelines of Paris conference on Afghanistan.
“The attack is a blatant and willful negation of the sacrifices Pakistan has made in the war against terrorism,” a Pakistani government statement quoted Qureshi as saying.
The Pakistani border post came under fire in the remote tribal district of Mohmand Agency late on Tuesday when US planes targeted Taliban fighters fleeing after an attack on Afghan and NATO forces.
Eleven personnel from the paramilitary Frontier Corps were killed and 13 were injured. The Taliban claimed that eight of their comrades also died in the airstrike, fueling anger in Pakistan.
Scheffer refused to comment on the airstrike, but said that he and Qureshi had “agreed that what we need with Pakistan is first of all a strengthening of military-to-military dialogue, [and] secondly, that we do need also a more mature political dialogue between Pakistan and the international community.”
“It’s crystal clear that border presents problems, we have seen this increase in people crossing the border and making mischief in Afghanistan and then going back,” Scheffer said.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Pakistan to join an investigation into the air raid.
Calling on the Pakistani government to rethink its relationship with the US, Haider Khan Hoti, chief minister of North West Frontier Province, said the strike was “absolutely naked aggression.”
“After condemnation, we should do some serious rethinking of the ties that we have because on the one side in the war on terror we are expected to offer them cooperation and on the other hand our security forces are being targeted,” Hoti told reporters in Peshawar.
The grainy, monochrome images released by the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan show about a half-dozen men firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from a ridge at coalition troops off camera in the valley below. According to the voiceover, the ridge is in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, about 200m from the Pakistan border and close to the Gorparai checkpoint.
Neither the checkpoint nor any other structures are visible in the video excerpts, which were shot by a surveillance drone circling above the mountainous battle zone.
The voiceover says the coalition forces were on a reconnaissance mission and returned fire.
The video shows “anti-Afghan militants” moving to a position identified as inside Pakistan and the impact of a bomb that the voiceover says killed two of them. The survivors fled into a ravine, where three more bombs fell. The voiceover said all the militants were killed and US officials said 13 bombs were dropped in all.
Pakistan’s army says the fighting broke out after Afghan government soldiers, who had occupied a mountaintop position in a disputed border zone on Monday, acceded to a Pakistan request to withdraw.
Major General Athar Abbas said the Afghan forces were on their way back when they were attacked by insurgents and that the airstrike was ordered in response.
Abbas said on Thursday that the army was analyzing the coalition video and statements by US officials and had yet to formulate its response.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS