Nato's chief urges route re-opening: deaths of soldiers 'regretted'

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

BRUSSELS (October 05 2010): Nato's chief expressed regret on Monday for the deaths of Pakistani soldiers last week and said he hoped Pakistan's border would reopen for Nato supplies to Afghanistan as soon as possible. Angered by repeated attacks by Nato helicopters on militant targets within its borders, Pakistan blocked one of the supply routes for Nato troops in Afghanistan after a strike killed three Pakistani soldiers in the western Kurram region.

"I expressed my regret for the incident last week in which Pakistani soldiers lost their lives," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Brussels. "I expressed my hope the border will be open for supplies as soon as possible."

The apology came after gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks taking goods to Western forces in Afghanistan on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital. Senior police officer Mirwaiz Niaz said at least a dozen gunmen opened fire on tankers at a depot near Islamabad late on Sunday, killing three guards. They then set fire to 13 vehicles.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility. "We will continue such attacks all over the country to avenge drone attacks and attacks by foreign forces inside Pakistani territory," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hours later, suspected militants attacked trawlers carrying supplies for Nato through the south-western province of Balochistan, killing one man, police said. "Efforts are underway to resolve this issue, but there is a lot of anger in Pakistan about the border incursion," a senior government official told Reuters. ISAF spokesman Major Joel Harper told Reuters in Kabul "recent attacks in Pakistan have no immediate impact - less than 1 percent of all trucks and traffic experience any pilferage or damage." "That said ... it is an important element of the Pakistani economy, it's important to our logistics stocks.

As attacks take place, Nato has no alternative but to seek other routes into Afghanistan - we are exploring other logistics routes with other countries in the north." Nato maintains a northern distribution network through Russia and central Asian republics for about 30 percent of its non-lethal supplies, Harper said.

"THERE IS ANGER" Despite its anger, Pakistan can't afford to long antagonise an ally that provides $2 billion in military aid a year - aid vital for Pakistan's own fight against militants, analysts say. "There has to be some solution and I think there will be one. But there is an anger and you have to address it," a Pakistani security official said.

Officials at the US embassy in Islamabad said despite the protests by Pakistan and the closing of the border, co-operation in flood relief missions and security assistance continues. "Co-operation is continuing on a lot of levels. Contextually, we're still in a better place than we were two years ago in terms of co-operation," said a senior embassy official. "From that perspective, we're working now to address their concerns."

Rasmussen said the killing of the three Pakistani soldiers was unintended and showed the need to improve co-ordination between the Nato and the Pakistani military. He said a joint investigation was under way. "It is important we step up our co-operation," he said. That co-operation could be slow in coming, however, because the US CIA has escalated its unacknowledged campaign of pilotless drone strikes against al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan's north-west, with 21 attacks in September, the highest number in a single month on record.