President Hamid Karzai on Sunday accused Pakistan of firing 470
rockets into two eastern Afghan provinces over the past three weeks, a
deadly rain of artillery that Afghan officials said killed 36 people,
including 12 children.
The attacks came in areas of Kunar and
Nangahar provinces where NATO forces have withdrawn, and where
Pakistani Taliban moved in behind fleeing civilians, Afghan border
officials said.
Karzai indicated Pakistani government forces are
responsible for the bombardment, and "they should be stopped
immediately." And "if they are not being carried out by Pakistan,
Pakistan should make it clear who is behind the attacks," he said in a
statement issued by the presidential palace.
Afghan security
officials said joint NATO and Afghan border units have fired back into
Pakistan, but NATO and Pakistan military officials denied any knowledge
of border skirmishes.
NATO reported, meanwhile, that five service
members were killed in at least three insurgent attacks in western,
southern, and eastern Afghanistan on Sunday. The international
coalition gave no other details. The deaths bring to at least 53 the
number of NATO service members killed in June, and to more than 200
this year.
Karzai said he discussed the rocket barrage with
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari during an anti-terrorism conference
in Tehran on Saturday, the same day the Afghan Defense Ministry
spokesman warned that Afghanistan would defend itself.
"The
government of Pakistan should understand that there will be a reaction
for killing Afghan citizens," said spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
The
Afghan president said he also discussed the border attack with Afghan
NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry
during his regular national security council meeting on Sunday.
American
and Afghan officials have pressured Pakistan to end its security
forces' long-standing relationship with the Taliban movement, viewed as
a tool for Pakistani influence over strategically placed Afghanistan.
Such major artillery support for a Taliban operation, however, would be
one of the most blatant recent examples of Pakistani support and bodes
ill for the testy relationship among the three countries.
Afghan
border police spokesman Edris Mohmand, who reported 36 Afghans killed
by the rockets, including 12 children, said 2,000 families have fled
districts threatened by the barrage, including Asmar and Nangalam in
Kunar, and Goshta district in Nangahar.
"All these attacks have
been from Pakistan's side and for sure they are Pakistani weapons being
used against innocent Afghans," Mohmand said. "The border police in the
eastern region have been equipped with heavy artillery but we are
waiting for orders from the interior minister."
NATO has recently
withdrawn many of its combat troops from forward operating bases and
combat outposts in Kunar and Nangarhar. Both provinces continue to be
heavily contested by Taliban fighters.
Spokesman Azimi said the
Afghan Defense Ministry "asks the president of Pakistan to stop the
artillery firing and compensate the losses caused."
Violence has
been on the rise across Afghanistan since the country's Taliban
Islamists launched a spring offensive and promised retaliation for the
death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan on
May 2.
The deadliest single attack since February occurred on
Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber blew up his
sport utility vehicle at a health clinic while women and children lined
up for maternity care and vaccinations. At least 35 were killed.
The
vehicle smashed through a wall at the Akbarkhail Public Medical Center
before anyone could shoot the driver or blow out the tires, local
officials said. The force of the blast caused the building to collapse.
Survivors
frantically dug through the rubble with shovels and bare hands. At
least 53 other people were wounded, said the provincial public health
director, Dr. Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail.
"They were offering
important services for the people. We had very good services and lots
of patients. There were only 10 beds but lots of other services in that
center. It's why the casualties were so high," he said.
Wary of being blamed for civilian casualties, the Taliban denied it was behind the bombing in Azra district in Logar province.
"This
attack was not done by our fighters," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah
Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The
Taliban claims it does not target civilians, but the movement is
fractured and Saturday's attacks shared characteristics of other recent
violence.
A recent U.N. report found that May was the deadliest
month for civilians since it began keeping track in 2007, and it said
insurgents were to blame for 82 percent of the 368 deaths recorded. AP
