DTN News - NATO ATTACK ON PAKISTAN: US officials Say Pakistan Leaving Liaison Centers
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - December 6, 2011: Pakistan is pulling its troops out of at least two of the three centers meant to coordinate military activity across the Afghan border in apparent retaliation for NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, U.S. military officials said.
The move will hamper U.S. efforts to liaise with Pakistani forces, increasing the risk that something could go wrong again, said the officials late Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The U.S. and Pakistan have offered different accounts of what led to the NATO attacks against two army posts along the Afghan border before dawn on Nov. 26, but the deadly incident seems to have been caused in part by communication breakdowns.
The soldiers' deaths have plunged the already strained U.S.-Pakistan relations to an all-time low, threatening Washington's attempts to get Pakistan to cooperate on the Afghan war despite billions of dollars in American aid.
Pakistan retaliated immediately by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies, demanding the U.S. vacate an air base used by American drones and boycotting an international conference held Monday in Bonn, Germany, aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Pakistan wants to repair relations with the United States.
But the military's decision to abandon the border coordination centers shows it is still outraged over the incident, which it has called deliberate - an allegation denied by the U.S. The Pakistan army is considered the strongest organization in Pakistan and will likely determine the future course of ties with the U.S.
Pakistan may still have troops at the coordination center in Torkham in the country's northwest Khyber tribal area, but has pulled out of the other two along the border, said the U.S. officials.
The Pakistani military did not immediately respond to request for comment.
NATO attacks have killed Pakistani troops at least three different times along the porous and poorly defined border since 2008, but the incident on Nov. 26 in the Mohmand tribal area was by far the most deadly.
U.S. officials have said the incident occurred when a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested air support after coming under fire. The U.S. checked with the Pakistan military to see if there were friendly troops in the area and were told there were not, they said.
No comments:
Post a Comment