U.S. Troops Carry Out Attack Inside Pakistan
September 4th, 2008Via: Guardian:
An incursion by foreign troops from Afghanistan into Pakistan that killed at least 20 people, including women and children, has been condemned by the foreign ministry in Islamabad as a “gross violation” of Pakistani territory.
Security officials in the region have said the incursion into the tribal area of South Waziristan was carried out by US commandos dropped from helicopters.
The North West Frontier Province governor, Owais Ahmed Ghani, who is in administrative charge of the tribal areas, said in a statement: “It is outrageous … 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.”
A spokeswoman for Afghanistan’s Nato-led force said she had no information about the incident.
A spokesman for a separate US-led coalition force declined to comment, referring questions to the US Central Command.
The pre-dawn raid took place in a village across the border from a US base at Shikin in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.
“Troops came in helicopters and carried out action in three houses,” a village shopkeeper, Gul Nawaz, told Reuters.
Witnesses told the BBC Urdu service that troops entered the house of a local tribesman, opened fire and threw a bomb in the house.
They said at least nine bodies had been recovered from the debris. The witnesses said the family was not known for links with militants.
