Pakistan forces in deadly clashes with militants
Islamist fighters cross Afghan border to wage two-day battle with military in remote north-west area
Islamist militants believed to have come from Afghanistan have fought a second day of battles with Pakistani security forces.
The clashes are among the deadliest on Pakistan's side of the border in months. Authorities said 63 people had been killed.
Pakistan's military had initially said the assault was the work of about 200 militants, but a government statement later put the number at between 300 and 400. The statement said the militants "attacked villages and burned schools".
Army commanders said Nato was failing to crack down on militants sheltering on the Afghan side of the border.
The government statement said the Pakistani foreign secretary had "stressed the need for stern action by the Afghan army, US and Nato/international security assistance force (ISAF) forces in the area against militants and their hideouts in Afghanistan, and against organisational support for the militants".
The fighting began when militants crossed into Pakistan on Wednesday. By Thursday evening, 25 soldiers, 35 militants and three civilians had died in fighting, according to the regional police chief, Ghulam Mohammed.
Clashes erupted in the town of Shaltalo in the Upper Dir district, which lies across the poorly defined and largely unpatrolled border with Afghanistan's Kunar region.
Mohammed said 200 militants crossed the border and attacked a checkpoint controlled by police and paramilitary troops.
He said many of the attackers had fled back to Afghanistan after the fighting and the situation was now under control.
The battle highlighted possible trouble for both the US and Pakistan when Washington begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan later this year.
Signalling a deepening of Pakistan's rift with the US and voicing Islamabad's anger over the attacks, the government issued a statement voicing "strong concern" over the attack.
Pakistan has said Nato does not have enough troops stationed along the Afghan side of the border.
In the past, Nato and Pakistani forces have staged co-ordinated "hammer and anvil" operations along the border, but relations between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated since the US raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed on 2 May.Nato officials insist border co-operation has not suffered as a result of the deteriorating relationship.
Pakistan's north-west border with Afghanistan is home to thousands of al-Qaida and Taliban militants. They are in broad alliance and focus attacks on international and Afghan forces across the border.
Pakistan's army has moved into parts of the mountainous, sparsely-populated region over the last four years. It previously had little or no presence, but the militants have proved resilient.
Army commanders in the Mohmand region of Pakistan, which lies opposite Kunar, said their operation to clear the region of militants was being hampered because insurgents were being sheltered on the other side of the border.
They said the insurgents had free movement in a six-mile (10km)stretch of territory between the river Kunar and the border.
Nato spokeswoman Colette Murphy said "the terrain in that area provides 'natural' havens, but these are by no means 'safe' havens". She added: "As long as they are inside Afghanistan's borders, we will target them."
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Thursday that Pakistan must sort out its damaged relationship with the US before the Pentagon would be able to reverse "very significant" cuts in its military training there.
He said it was critical to go after militants in north Waziristan, but Pakistan had made no specific pledge to do so in the near future.
Pakistani generals have argued that Pakistan had deployed more soldiers on its side of the border than the west had deployed across the whole of Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment