U.S.-Led Troops Repelled From Pakistani Border: Officials

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US-led troops repelled from Pakistani border: officials

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_led_troops_repelled_from_Pakista_09152008.html

9/15/2008

US-led coalition troops based in Afghanistan tried to cross into a Pakistani tribal area in helicopters but were repelled after warning shots were fired, local officials said Monday.

The incident happened about 100 metres (yards) from South Waziristan late Sunday on the Afghan side of the border, but there were no casualties.

"The US-led coalition troops in helicopters came close to the border and they tried to enter into Pakistan territory but shots were fired by Pakistani troops and the coalition troops retreated," a security official said.

An unnamed Pakistani army spokesman confirmed an incident took place but denied its involvement.

"There was firing but our troops were not involved," he told AFP. "Firing was heard but there was no violation of Pakistan territory," he said.

A second security official based in the area said that local tribesmen joined in the firing after Pakistani soldiers played bugles to alert local people to the threat of an incursion.

The Pakistan army's chief military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, denied there had been any such incident.

"These reports are not correct," he said.

"We have checked, there is an FC (Frontier Corps) post in the area. No helicopter came inside our side of the border, nor did our troops fire at any," Abbas said.

The apparent incident took place amid high tensions in the border region a week after Pakistan accused US troops of carrying out a direct attack in the same area that left 15 people dead.

Separately, US drones have carried out repeated missile strikes killing dozens of people, including civilians, in Pakistan and straining the relationship between the "war on terror" allies.

Pakistan vowed Sunday to defend itself against violations of its air space and incursions by US forces in Afghanistan.

US and Afghan officials say Pakistan's tribal areas are a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who took sanctuary there after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the mountainous region.

The civilian deaths have stirred local anger and embarrassed the Pakistani government, already struggling to tackle the militancy that has seen 1,200 of its own people die in bombings and suicide attacks in the past year alone.

Pakistan's army, itself engaged in fierce clashes against militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the border regions, has previously condemned what it sees as unilateral US action that violates the country's sovereignty.

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US forces the terror issue with Pakistan

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JI16Df01.html

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
9/15/2008

KARACHI - The United States had been aware of North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia since 1966, but the US avoided attacking them due to possible adverse international repercussions. However, as the going got tougher in Vietnam, in 1969 president Richard Nixon extended the war theater to Laos and Cambodia, which only plunged the region in a quagmire and ultimately led to the conclusive defeat of American interests.

Similarly, in the South Asian war theater, Washington has been aware of Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the Pakistani tribal areas for many years, but President George W Bush deferred to Pakistan to deal with them.

This has changed in recent months, given the Taliban's resilience in Afghanistan, largely made possible by their bases inside Pakistan. US Predator drones and US special forces have carried out five attacks in September inside Pakistan's tribal areas, even though Washington is well aware of the consequences of such cross-border action.

These include a possible revolt in Pakistan's establishment against the "war on terror" and a spurt in anti-American sentiment, which could cost the pro-US administration of President Asif Ali Zardari dearly.

Clearly, Washington is frustrated with the situation in Afghanistan, and it no doubt rankles that the American "empire" is being thwarted by a bunch of "cave-dwellers".

In the years following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Pakistan handed over a number of al-Qaeda members to the US. Whether or not they were significant was not so much the point as the arrests created a feeling in the US that the "war on terror" was working, and funds and troops for it flowed freely.

Those arrested included Abu Zubaida, the alleged military operations commander of al-Qaeda, in 2002. A joint Pakistan-US raid in the southern port city of Karachi created a stir on the first anniversary of September 11, 2001, when the alleged 20th member of Hamburg cell, Ramzi Bin Shib, was arrested. He was unable to join his co-conspirators in the September 11 attacks in the US as he could not get a visa for the US.

Then come Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of September 11, followed by many others who made the headlines. Altogether, Pakistan handed over 700 "icons of terror", but in 2007 the arrests stopped. There are several reasons for this.

The US placed high rewards on the heads of suspects, for instance, US$25 million for Khalid Sheikh. But invariably, all but less than 1% went to the Pakistani government, and not the people involved in the investigations and capture, or the informants.

Further, the Pakistani courts under now deposed chief justice Chaudhary Iftikahar began to challenge extra-judicial arrests, which put a brake on the free-wheeling security agencies.

And last but not least, al-Qaeda members became much more cautious about moving or living in Pakistan's cities, instead retreating to safe havens in the tribal areas or in Afghanistan, where it was virtually impossible to track them down.

This situation was not good enough for the US, especially in a presidential election year. The first US demand came in 2007 in president Pervez Musharraf's time.

But as al-Qaeda members were no longer roaming the streets of the cities, they could not be delivered. The best Pakistan could do was provide information on their likely locations and descriptions of them.

Pakistan and the US then agreed on intelligence-sharing, with the understanding that the Americans, with their superior technology, would pinpoint suspects, notify Islamabad, then attack them.

According to a top Pakistani official who was a part of the recent strategic dialogue with the Americans, none of these understandings was documented - they were verbal agreements between US officials and Musharraf. When Zardari's government was reminded of such agreements by Washington, a Pakistani official who had accompanied Musharraf confirmed them, although there were no minutes. On this basis, the US went ahead with its drone and special forces attacks inside Pakistan.

Now, for the first time, there are efforts to institutionalize Pakistan-American relations as well as that between the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

There are many issues to sort out.

Pakistan keeps on giving the US information on the hideouts of Baitullah Mehsud, the anti-Pakistan tribal warlord and self-proclaimed head of the Tehrik-i-Taliban. But Washington wants information on Taliban figures such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, as well as veteran mujahid Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose arrest or killing would better boost the image of the "war on terror" in the US.

Similarly, Pakistan has repeatedly given information on Egyptian ideologue Sheikh Essa, who was once hit by a drone attack but only wounded, whereas the US wants the low-down on Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri - a much more difficult or even impossible task.

The US is not waiting around, though, and it can be expected more attacks will be made into Pakistan, even though, in its impatience, the US is notching up new Mai Lais - the mass murder of hundreds of unarmed citizens in Vietnam by US Army forces on March 16, 1968.

Last week, more than 20 women and children were killed by US special forces in a raid on Angorada in South Waziristan. The US later admitted the soldiers had followed the wrong target.

As with the bombing of Cambodia and Laos nearly 40 years ago, the latest US offensive could mark a decisive turning point in South Asia.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com