Thursday, September 4, 2008
Islamabad lashes out at 'grave provocation' that killed at least 15 people just as Prime Minister escapes apparent assassination attempt
ISLAMABAD -- U.S. troops raided a Taliban base in Pakistan yesterday, U.S. officials acknowledged, killing at least 15 people and raising the ire of one of Washington's most import allies in the war on terror.
It's the first known U.S. ground attack in Pakistan, prompting an angry response from Islamabad, which accused the troops of killing civilians.
Relations between Islamabad and Western forces in neighbouring Afghanistan had been improving, before the setback from what Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs described as a "grave provocation."
The deaths, just inside Pakistan, in its Waziristan tribal area, occurred amid growing controversy in Afghanistan over the killing of civilians by Western forces, after an aerial bombardment last month that claimed as many as 90 civilian lives in western Afghanistan.
Separately, Islamic extremists near Islamabad opened fire on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's car, in an apparent assassination attempt. The assailants, firing from a roadside embankment, hit the driver's side window twice. Mr. Gilani was not in the car at the time. The armoured Mercedes-Benz was on its way to collect him from the airport outside Islamabad.
Mr. Gilani's son and a government minister were reportedly in the motorcade.
"This was a warning," a top security official in Islamabad said. "They're saying, 'we can get you.' If they could fire bullets, they could also fire a rocket-launcher."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a protest against military operations in the northwest valley of Swat.
"We will continue such attacks on government officials and installations," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said.
Last week, gunmen opened fire on the car of U.S. diplomat Lynne Tracy, who escaped unhurt. Extremists assassinated Benazir Bhutto, leader of Mr. Gilani's Pakistan Peoples Party, in December of last year, and staged at least three assassination attempts against former president Pervez Musharraf - two of which came close to killing him.
In a speech yesterday, Mr. Gilani, without any hint of irony, said, "I am happy to state that the law and order situation is, God willing, returning to normalcy."
Details were murky about the predawn raid by U.S. forces into South Waziristan, part of the tribal area that NATO believes is used as a haven by insurgents operating in Afghanistan.
A U.S. official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross-border operations, said the raid occurred about 1.6 kilometres inside Pakistan. The official, based in Washington, didn't provide details on casualties.
Islamabad has called for international forces to share intelligence on the tribal belt so that it can deal with militants there, but U.S. and NATO commanders have often mistrusted their Pakistani counterparts, believing that elements of the military and intelligence sympathize with the insurgents.
Owais Ghani, the provincial governor in charge of the tribal belt, put the death toll from the incident at a village in the Angoor Adda area as high as 20 civilians, including three women and four children. The Pakistan army put the death toll at 15, including seven civilians.
"This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," Mr. Ghani said.
Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said he heard helicopters, then firing. "Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head," Mr. Wazir told The Associated Press, adding that all the dead were civilians. "There was darkness at the time when the Americans came and killed our innocent people," he said. "We would have not allowed them to go back alive if they had come to our village in daylight."
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry lodged official protests. It is thought that the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad, Anne Patterson, was summoned to the ministry.
There have been frequent U.S. missile strikes in the tribal territory, some of which have killed top al-Qaeda leaders who have been uneasily tolerated by Pakistan. But the acknowledged use of ground forces is unprecedented and appears to be more than Islamabad is willing to tolerate.
"We reserve the right of self-defence and retaliation to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression," said Major-General Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistan army.
