PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistani helicopters and artillery on Friday
forced back militants who crossed over from Afghanistan this week and
triggered battles that have killed at least 63 people, an official
said. The incursion prompted Islamabad to demand that NATO and Afghan
troops do more to control insurgents on their side of the long, porous
border.
Up to 400 militants are said to have
infiltrated into Pakistan's Upper Dir region from Afghanistan's Kunar
province on Wednesday. They attacked a security checkpoint, villages
and schools, according to the Pakistani government.
Regional
administrator Ghulam Mohammad Khan said the militants were retreating
Friday, and Pakistani troops were still attacking them in Nustrat Darra
district.
As of Thursday night, 25 soldiers, 35
militants and three civilians had died in the clashes, Khan said. He
had no information about casualties from Friday's fighting,
The
militant attack and Pakistan's reaction contradicted the usual U.S.
narrative about the poorly defined boundary that runs through rough
country for about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers). Typically, militant
cross-border movements originate in Pakistan, leaving the United States
and NATO to complain to Islamabad over its failure to stop the
infiltration into Afghanistan.
This time the situation was reversed.
The
new battles found Pakistan the aggrieved party, lending credence to
Pakistani army commanders' complaints that NATO was failing to crack
down on militants sheltering on the Afghan side of the rugged region.
A
Pakistani government statement late Thursday said the foreign secretary
had "stressed the need for stern action by the Afghan army, U.S. and
NATO/ISAF forces in the area against militants and their hideouts in
Afghanistan and against organizational support for the militants."
Beyond
emphasizing the difficulties of fighting an enemy that pays no
attention to borders, the battle hints at challenges ahead for the U.S.
and Pakistan when Washington begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan
later this year. Pakistan maintains that NATO already doesn't have
enough troops along the Afghan side of the border.
In
the past, NATO and Pakistani forces have staged coordinated "hammer and
anvil" operations against militants on the border, but relations
between Washington and Islamabad have hit a particularly rough patch,
especially since the unilateral American raid in Pakistan that killed
Osama bin Laden on May 2.
Even so, NATO officials say that border cooperation has not suffered as a result of the chill in ties. AP
