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Act of war
U.S. Troops Kill 20 in Pakistan Attack
By Hafiz Wazir
03/09/08 --- -WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) -
"Suspected" U.S.
commandos from Afghanistan killed 20 people, including women and
children, in a pre-dawn raid inside Pakistan, officials said, an
attack branded as an assault on the nation's sovereignty.
The attack is likely to spark uproar in Pakistan, where it will
be seen as undermining sovereignty at a time when a new civilian
government is struggling to assert authority in the turbulent
nuclear-armed state.
"It is outrageous," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West
Frontier province, said in a statement.
"This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the
people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise
to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting
reply," he said.
Security officials in the region said they suspected U.S.
soldiers backed by helicopter gunships mounted the attack.
A spokeswoman for Afghanistan's NATO-led force said she had no
information about the incident.
A spokesman for a separate U.S.-led coalition force declined to
comment, referring questions to the U.S. Central Command.
The United States says al Qaeda and Taliban militants are based
in sanctuaries in northwest Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal
areas on the Afghan border, where they orchestrate attacks in
Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot violence in the West.
Since the emergence of a civilian-led government following
elections in Pakistan in February, there has been mounting
concern that U.S. military operations were becoming more
aggressive in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.
The number of missile attacks launched by pilotless drone
aircraft have multiplied, and there have been fears U.S. forces
would use helicopter gunships or put troops on the ground for
"hot pursuit" or commando-style raids to destroy al Qaeda nests.
THREE HOUSES
The attack took place in a village in the South Waziristan
region, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The village is across the border from Bermal, a village near a
U.S. base at Shikin in Afghanistan's Paktika province.
"Troops came in helicopters and carried out action in three
houses," said Angor Adda village shopkeeper Gul Nawaz.
Other residents said the foreign troops detained some people and
took them away.
U.S.-operated drone aircraft have launched attacks in Pakistani
border regions several times this year, killing dozens of
militants, but U.S. ground troops had not been known to cross
into Pakistan to fight militants.
Pakistan is a staunch U.S. ally, even though the campaign
against militancy is deeply unpopular with many people, but it
rules out any encroachment by foreign soldiers onto its soil.
Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said aircraft belonging
to foreign forces in Afghanistan attacked three houses at 4.30
a.m. (2230 GMT).
He declined to comment further, saying the Foreign Ministry was
investigating.
(Additional reporting by Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Augustine
Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait)
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