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Los Angeles Times photo trucks held up by closure of Pakistan-Afghan border
NATO has admitted it is “highly likely” it was responsible for
an attack by warplanes and helicopters that killed dozens of Pakistan soldiers
on an Afghan border post near Mohmand. Pakistan forces returned fire.
Reuters and Al Jazeera said the toll could reach or exceed
30. It was deadliest attack on Pakistan forces by
NATO since it invaded neighboring Afghanistan after 9/11.
"Pakistan's sovereignty was attacked early this morning," said Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "This is our Pakistan and we have to defend it," told the Wall Street journal.
“Close air support was called in, in the development of the
tactical situation, and it is what likely caused the Pakistan casualties,”
Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for NATO said. He apologized.
News reports said NATO forces were involved in an
anti-Taliban operation in the Khyber region of northwestern Pakistan near the
Afghan border.
Relations between Islamabad have deteriorated as the war
seems to drone on without end. And U.S. military and government officials have
accused Pakistan of giving some of the ammunition and other aid it delivers to
anti-Afghanistan government groups.
In some cases NATO forces allegedly were killed with these
munitions.
Pakistan was outraged by the Navy Seal attack inside its
territory that resulted in the execution of Osama bin Laden.
Afghan President has simultaneously criticized the U.S. for
allegedly killing civilians not involved in the conflict.
In the U.S., support for the war has declined as casualties
climb at the same time American commanders say they are winning. Intense
pressure to cut government spending adds to the pressure to pull out of the
graveyard of empires.
Pakistan, meanwhile, said it returned fire on the attack
early Saturday. There was no information on NATO suffered casualties.
“Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in
self-defense to NATO’s aggress with all available weapons,” its military said
in a statement.
Killing 30 Pakistani soldiers has far reaching effects. They likely had families that they were supporting, and now what will those who are bereft survive? To say, "Sorry for the mistake" hardly makes anything better. What it does, is make more enemies of the western countries. As Gandi is quoted: An eye for an eye until the whole world is blind.
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