[2dogs]

Posted in the WW III thread, but I thought it was mighty important, and would get lost there.

Even though we were working with Pakistan- the radical Muslims that seek control there are not going to take this lightly.

Pervez had best go to ground.




U.S. Bombs Hit Pakistan Town After Border Clash
Tue December 31, 2002 09:53 AM ET
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The U.S. military bombed an abandoned religious school on Pakistani territory after a gunbattle between U.S. and Pakistani troops on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. military said that one of its soldiers had been wounded in Afghanistan Sunday in an exchange of gunfire with a Pakistani border guard. A Pakistani official said two border guards were also injured.

Pakistan is a close U.S. ally in the war on terror and says it has stationed 60,000-70,000 troops on the Afghan border to help track down remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and leaders of the Taliban regime that sheltered them.

The wounded American was part of a unit conducting a mission with Pakistani forces along the Afghan border when a disagreement appeared to break out, according to a statement released by the U.S. military at their Afghan headquarters at Bagram air base.

"A Pakistani border scout opened fire with a G3 rifle after the U.S. patrol asked him to return to the Pakistan side of the border," the statement said.

"That individual and several others retreated to a nearby structure," it added. "Close air support was requested and one 500-lb bomb was dropped on the target area."

Mohammad Khurshied, a local official in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area close to the Afghan border, later told Reuters that a seminary in the Pakistani town of Angor Adda had been hit by U.S. warplanes.

A Pakistani intelligence official said two bombs were dropped on Pakistani soil, but he reported no injuries.

Haji Anar Gul, a businessman in the area, added that the bombs fell on a religious seminary known as the Maulvi Mohammad Hassan madrassah, damaging its boundary wall and main gate.

The U.S. military said the incident happened near the Afghan village of Shkin, which lies on the border with Pakistan.

"We are working with the Pakistanis for an accurate battlefield damage assessment from the incident," it said.

According to Khurshied, a series of talks between U.S. and Pakistani military officials on the border had resolved differences surrounding Sunday's incident.

The U.S. statement did not give details of the joint U.S. and Pakistani mission or say whether it was taking place inside Pakistan or Afghanistan.

U.S. forces patrolling eastern Afghanistan for al Qaeda fugitives say they cooperate with Pakistani forces on the other side of the border, but do not cross into Pakistani territory to pursue fugitives.

The U.S. statement also did not say what the Pakistani border guard was doing inside Afghanistan.

The wounded soldier was flown to Germany for medical treatment and is in stable condition, the U.S. military said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=23FDTUL3KPNKICRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=1978147

[4v50 Gary]

I suppose it may only be a matter of time before Pakistan has a rebellion by their Islamic fundamentalists. Then they and the Indians would go to war. Hope we're out of the way when the nukes start dropping.

[SIGarmed]

If it might not have been on Pakistani soil why is the article titled so?

[Blackhawk]

... damaging its boundary wall and main gate. Obviously, the 500 pounders were duds.... :rolleyes:

[Bahadur]

Waziris on the Pakistani side of the border are sympathetic to their cousins on the Afghan side.

In fact, that part of Pakistan is practically Afghanistan. The regime in Islamabad has not maintained any semblance of control in the border areas.

[2dogs]

FOLLOWUP

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20030102-13472514.htm

January 2, 2003


Conflicts strain Pakistan - U.S. relations
By Ahmed Rashid
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH


LAHORE, Pakistan — Relations between Pakistan and the United States deteriorated sharply yesterday as tension rose after the weekend shooting of a U.S. soldier by a Pakistani serviceman on the Afghan border and a retaliatory bombing by a U.S. plane.

The American was shot in the head Sunday during a clash with Pakistani troops on the border. The U.S. Air Force promptly reacted by dropping a 500-pound bomb as it pursued the Pakistani patrol.
It was not clear whether the bomb landed inside Pakistani territory.
The incident caused uproar in the North West Frontier Province, which is governed by a hard-line Islamist alliance.
The provincial assembly called the air raid "a severe blow to our sovereignty and independence" and asked the Pakistani government yesterday to lodge a protest with the U.S. government "against this flagrant violation of the country's airspace."
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the head of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, accused Pakistani leaders of being too submissive.
"Our country is like an orphan," he said. "There was no protest. This is tragic."
Residents of the Pakistani border district of South Waziristan said that U.S. planes dropped two bombs on a madrassa, or religious school, in the small town of Angoor Adda, though there were no casualties.
A U.S. military spokesman at Bagram air base in Afghanistan said close air support was called in to pursue the border patrol troops as they fled, but one bomb was dropped and it fell inside Afghanistan.
The spokesman said U.S. and Pakistani patrols were working together at the time to blow up a cache of weapons. When the Pakistani soldier was asked to leave the area, he opened fire. The wounded soldier, whose head was grazed by a bullet, was flown to Germany for treatment.
On Dec. 21, a U.S. soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed in the same area in an encounter with Taliban fighters.
U.S. officers in Kabul are becoming increasingly frustrated at Pakistan's inability to stop small groups of al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan, firing rockets on U.S. bases and then retreating back to Pakistan.
"Ninety percent of the attacks we face are coming from groups based in Pakistan, and there is very little we can do about it," said a senior U.S. military officer in Kabul.
Western intelligence sources in Kabul say Jalaluddin Haqqani, a high-ranking Taliban leader, is hiding in Pakistan's South Waziristan Province, where he is being protected by rogue Pakistani intelligence officials.
Pakistan denies the charges and says it has 60,000 troops guarding the border.
"I think the security situation in eastern Afghanistan is going to be a problem for some time to come," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a visit to Bagram late last year. Gen. Myers called for Pakistan to place more troops on the border.
Meanwhile, an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone crashed near an air base in Jacobabad in southwest Pakistan. There were no casualties.

[2dogs]

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5297

A very good look at Pakistan. I thought it was too long to post, so just use the url if interested.