Pakistan halts Nato supplies after killing of three soldiers

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD (October 01 2010): Pakistani authorities blocked a vital supply route for Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan on Thursday after the killing of three soldiers in two Nato cross-border incursions, officials said. Trucks and fuel tankers for foreign forces in Afghanistan were stopped at the Torkham border post in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar, hours after the raid.

"Yes, the Nato supplies have been stopped. It has been done locally," a senior security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Aircraft from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) initially crossed the border in the Kurram region briefly while targeting suspected insurgents who were firing on a coalition base from a position inside Afghanistan, the statement said.

They were then fired on by people in Pakistan, and crossed the border again to target that group. "Operating in self-defence, the ISAF aircraft entered into Pakistani airspace killing several armed individuals," the statement said. The statement did not say if ISAF thought those killed were border guards, and when asked for clarification, an ISAF spokeswoman said both sides were still investigating the incident. "This is the third incident of its kind during the past week," the Pakistani military said in a statement. Three soldiers were wounded, it said.

CRUCIAL ALLY Pakistan is a crucial ally for the United States in its efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but analysts say border incursions and disruptions in Nato supplies underline growing tensions in the relationship. The United States has already stepped up missile strikes by its pilotless drone aircraft on militant targets inside Pakistan. The bulk of non-lethal military supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan moves through Pakistan.

"PROFOUND CONCERN" The border row occurred as CIA chief Leon Panetta began a previously scheduled visit to Pakistan for talks with top military and political figures. Panetta met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and the head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Gilani expressed "profound concern" over increasing drone strikes and violations of Pakistan's airspace by Nato forces, he said in a statement. Citing reports by Western security officials about foiling a militant plot to stage co-ordinated attacks in Europe, Gilani pledged Pakistan's help to thwart such plans if given "credible information in advance."

Panetta welcomed Pakistan's help in the fight against militants and said the US government would look into its ally's complaints about border violations. A senior intelligence official said border incursions into Pakistan were a "red line" and could lead to a "total snapping of relations". Neither country could afford that, the official said, so it would be a disaster if further incursions took place.

"But we'll live with that or we'll die with that," he said. "We're in a state of war. We've lost more than 30,000 people since 2001. What more can we lose? Another 100,000? These incursions are not something we can tolerate." Pakistan has said it would consider "response options" if Nato forces continued to violate its sovereignty.

Washington has stepped up missile strikes by unmanned drone planes in Pakistan's north-west, carrying out 21 in September, the highest for a month since it began such attacks in 2008. Also on Thursday, a video purporting to show Pakistani troops in the north-western Swat region summarily executing a group of bound and blindfolded young men appeared on the Internet.

The military is investigating, the intelligence official said, although he believed it was likely a forgery by the Pakistani Taliban, distributed as propaganda. If the video is found to be genuine, it raises troubling questions for the US and its support for the Pakistani army. US law forbids the support of foreign militaries that have committed gross human rights violations. On Thursday, security officials said they had arrested another accomplice of Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber.