K & P

Five killed by Nato firing in Pakistan

Officials say that five people have been killed by Nato cross-border fire from Afghanistan.

Afp September 28, 2010

PESHAWAR:

Pakistani security officials said Tuesday that five people were killed and two wounded by Nato cross-border fire from Afghanistan in the third such incident in days.

The security officials said members of the US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in the eastern Afghan province of Khost shelled Matta Sanga town close to the border early Monday.

"Five people were killed and two injured in the shelling by Nato-led forces," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A Pakistani government official in the region said the casualties were "all civilians". A Pakistani military official, who also spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, also confirmed the incident.

Isaf spokeswoman Major Sunset Belinsky confirmed "an engagement by Isaf helicopters against insurgent forces" on the Pakistan border Monday."According to current reports the helicopters did not enter Pakistan airspace. Isaf forces attempted to contact the Pakistan military prior to the engagement, but were unable to make contact," Belinsky said. She did not have any information about casualties.

Pakistan on Monday denounced cross-border air strikes by Nato helicopters pursuing militants as a violation of its sovereignty after Isaf said it killed more than 30 rebels on Friday. Isaf said the helicopters opened fire after a remote Afghan forces outpost in Khost province came under attack, and that two helicopters returned to the border area on Saturday, killing several more insurgents.

COMMENTS (5)

JimBob | 13 years ago | Reply Forty years ago Obama's predecessor Richard Nixon began his speech announcing the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia with these words: "Good evening, my fellow Americans. Ten days ago, in my report to the nation on Vietnam, I announced the decision to withdraw an additional 150,000 Americans from Vietnam over the next year. I said then that I was making that decision despite our concern over increased enemy activity in Laos, in Cambodia, and in South Vietnam. And at that time I warned that if I concluded that increased enemy activity in any of these areas endangered the lives of Americans remaining in Vietnam, I would not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal with that situation." He claimed that "enemy sanctuaries" in Cambodia "endanger the lives of Americans who are in Vietnam," and "if this enemy effort succeeds, Cambodia would become a vast enemy staging area and a springboard for attacks on South Vietnam along 600 miles of frontier: a refuge where enemy troops could return from combat without fear of retaliation." The course he ordered was to "go to the heart of the trouble. And that means cleaning out major North Vietnamese and Vietcong occupied territories, these sanctuaries which serve as bases for attacks on both Cambodia and American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam." The practical application of the policy was that "attacks are being launched this week to clean out major enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border." In language that has been heard again lately in Washington and Brussels - with nothing but the place names changed - Nixon claimed: "We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam...." Washington indeed expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, with what disastrous effects the world is fully aware, and soon thereafter departed Southeast Asia in defeat, leaving vast stretches of Vietnam and Cambodia in ruins. Afghanistan and Pakistan will not fare any better. source: "NATO Expands Afghan War Into Pakistan" by Rick Rozoff http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21228 ---------------------- They say those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it. These terrorists who Pakistan's intelligence services considers their "strategic assets" are now the greatest liability to Pakistan's existence. Pakistan should hand them over to NATO forces straightaway or if it cannot do so, then it should kick them out of its tribal areas back into Afghanistan, so it can spare itself the fate that befell Cambodia. God Bless America and God Bless Pakistan. Peace to both.

IZ | 13 years ago | Reply I wonder why some people complain about Pakistani sovereignty in an area where even the Pak army cannot go and from where armed Pakistanis cross into Afghanistan to murder and kill with impunity? Whats a couple of foreign helicopters more or less in such an area in which no Pakistani law can be enforced or is followed?