[R-G] US confirms raid inside Pakistan

[Anthony Fenton]

US confirms raid inside Pakistan

By PAUL ALEXANDER –

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIE0IUn4WIiaMBpjG8SI_6H5RXzgD92VKAO00

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — American forces launched a raid inside  
Pakistan Wednesday, a senior U.S. military official said, in the first  
known foreign ground assault in Pakistan against a suspected Taliban  
haven. The government condemned an incursion that it said killed at  
least 15 people.

The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of  
the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press  
that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the  
Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry launched a protest, saying U.S.-led troops  
flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village. An army  
spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent missile  
strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further  
anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist  
groups.

The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target.  
But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured  
in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds  
dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama  
bin Laden and al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

U.S. military and civilian officials declined to respond to Pakistan's  
complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to  
discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target  
of any raid like that reported Wednesday would have to be extremely  
important to risk an almost assured "big backlash" from Pakistan.

"You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less  
once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of  
Pakistani cooperation," the official said.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks killed at least two al-Qaida commanders  
this year in the same region, drawing protests from Pakistan's  
government that its sovereignty was under attack. U.S. officials did  
not acknowledge any involvement in those attacks.

But American commanders have been complaining publicly that Pakistan  
puts too little pressure on militant groups that are blamed for  
mounting violence in Afghanistan, stirring speculation that U.S.  
forces might lash out across the frontier.

Circumstances surrounding Wednesday's raid weren't clear, but U.S.  
rules of engagement allow American troops to chase militants across  
the border into Pakistan's lawless tribal region when they are  
attacked. They may only go about six miles on the ground, under normal  
circumstances. U.S. rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into Pakistan  
air space.

In other signs of Pakistan's precarious stability three days before  
legislators elect a successor to Pervez Musharraf as president,  
snipers shot at the prime minister's limousine near Islamabad and  
government troops killed two dozen militants in another area of the  
restive northwest.

Pakistani officials said they were lodging strong protests with the  
U.S. government and its military representative in Islamabad about  
Wednesday's raid in the South Waziristan area, a notorious hot bed of  
militant activity.

The Foreign Ministry called the strike "a gross violation of  
Pakistan's territory," saying it could "undermine the very basis of  
cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are  
trying to extinguish."

Prior to the U.S. military confirming the U.S. raid, Pakistan  
government and military officials had insisted that either the NATO  
force or the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan — both commanded by  
American generals — were responsible.

The army's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said the attack was the  
first incursion onto Pakistani soil by troops from the foreign forces  
that ousted Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime after the Sept. 11  
attack on the U.S.

He said the attack would undermine Pakistan's efforts to isolate  
Islamic extremists and could threaten NATO's major supply lines, which  
snake from Pakistan's Indian Ocean port of Karachi through the tribal  
region into Afghanistan.

"We cannot afford a huge uprising at the level of tribe," Abbas said.  
"That would be completely counterproductive and doesn't help the cause  
of fighting terrorism in the area."

A spokesman for NATO troops in Afghanistan denied any involvement in  
the raid.

The Pakistani anger threatens to upset efforts by American commanders  
to draw Pakistan's military into the U.S. strategy of dealing harshly  
with the militants.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met last week  
with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani army chief. Mullen said he came  
away encouraged that Pakistanis were becoming more focused on the  
problem of militants using the country as a safe haven.

However, Abbas, the army spokesman, said Wednesday that cross-border  
commando operations were not discussed and he reiterated Pakistan's  
position that its forces should be exclusively responsible for  
operations on its territory.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. and NATO should share intelligence  
and allow Pakistani troops to execute any raids needed inside  
Pakistan. However, Washington has accused rogue elements in Pakistan's  
main intelligence service of leaking sensitive information to militants.

American officials say destroying militant sanctuaries in Pakistani  
tribal regions is key to defeating Taliban-led militants in  
Afghanistan whose insurgency has strengthened every year since the  
fundamentalist militia was ousted for harboring bin Laden.

But there has been debate in Washington over how far the U.S. can go  
on its own.

Citing witness and intelligence reports, Abbas said troops flew in on  
at least one big CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, blasted their way  
into several houses and gunned down men they found there.

He said there was no evidence that any of those killed were insurgents  
or that the raiders abducted any militant leader, but he acknowledged  
Pakistan's military had no firsthand account.

There were differing reports on how many people were killed. The  
provincial governor claimed 20 civilians, including women and  
children, died. Army and intelligence officials, as well as residents,  
said 15 people were killed.

Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said he heard helicopters, then an  
exchange of gunfire.

"Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been  
shot in the head," Wazir said by phone. He claimed all the dead were  
civilians.

Near Islamabad, meanwhile, snipers fired at a motorcade near the  
capital as it headed to the airport to pick up the prime minister,  
hitting the window of his car at least twice, officials said. Neither  
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani nor his staff were in the vehicles.

Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the banned militant organization Tahrik-e- 
Taliban, claimed responsibility and pledged more attacks in  
retaliation for army operations in tribal areas and the Swat Valley  
along the border with Afghanistan.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined to comment  
on the claimed cross-border raid, but she said the U.S. would continue  
to work with Gilani's government.

"I am relieved, of course, that the incident aimed at the Pakistani  
prime minister did not succeed," Rice said.

"We're going to be in continued contact with the Pakistanis as we both  
try to help them to build a strong economic foundation, to build a  
strong democratic foundation and to fight the terrorists who are a  
threat not just to the United States and to Afghanistan but to  
Pakistan as well."

Associated Press writers Pamela Hess, Pauline Jelinek and Matthew Lee  
in Washington, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Munir Ahmad and  
Stephen Graham in Islamabad and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to  
this report.