Pakistan Says Foreign Troops Raid South Waziristan Village

Via Yahoo News (AP) -

SLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan angrily condemned a raid on a village that killed at least 15 people Wednesday, claiming U.S.-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the first known foreign ground assault against a suspected Taliban haven in this country's wild tribal belt.

The Foreign Ministry protested the attack, and 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 or discuss the attack, but one official in Washington said any decision to launch a mission sure to anger Pakistan would require a very important target.

[...]

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."

Government and military officials 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.

--------------------------------

Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said the following according to Pakistan Tribune News Service:

"The Government of Pakistan strongly condemns the assault by Coalition/ISAF troops on a village near Angoor Adda inside Pakistani territory, which has resulted in immense loss of civilian life."

According to The News, Foreign Secretary, Salman Bashir held a half-hour long meeting with the US ambassador during which he strongly denounced the action of allied forces on Pakistan soil.