Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>27 killed as US jets bomb Mohmand Agency</span></b>[/center]

<b><i>Major, 12 other soldiers among dead; protest lodged with US envoy; Washington terms attack legitimate</i>

GHALANAI/PESHAWAR : <span style='color:green'>Twenty-seven people, including 13 soldiers, a major among them, were killed and several others injured when two US fighter aircraft attacked several towns and security check-posts in the Mohmand Agency on Tuesday night.

Sources, however, said 25 soldiers of the Mohmand Rifles, a wing of paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), were killed and seven others injured in the US attack on Gora Parao security post near the Pak-Afghan border.</span></b>

But a senior official of the Mohmand Rifles, on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent that 13 of their people, including a major, were killed in the US air strikes on their post in the Mohmand Agency.

Some of the FC men, whose bodies were retrieved hours after the attack from their post, were identified as Major Mohammad Akbar, Subedar Salahuddin, Naib Subedar Zartaj, Havaldar Saifullah Khan, Sepoy Jalat, Sepoy Gulistan, Sepoy Salim Khan, Sepoy Mohammad Rashid, Sepoy Noorullah and Sepoy Akhtar Baz.

According to sources, six soldiers are still missing, including Sepoy Hidayat, Sepoy Naheed Khan, Sepoy Jaffar, Sepoy Abbas, Sepoy Noor Khan and Sepoy Waseem. They said that 13 of the paramilitary troops identified as Sepoy Muhabat, Sepoy Zahir, Sepoy Shehryar, Sepoy Sheerullah, Sepoy Hashim, Sepoy Muneer, Sepoy Sahib Dad, Sepoy Munaf, Sepoy Umar Gul, Sepoy Feroze, Sepoy Zahid, Sepoy Muhammad Gul and Sepoy Nazimullah sustained injuries in the attack.

Almost seven hours after the attack, two Pakistan Army choppers were sent to the troubled tribal region to bring the bodies of the soldiers and injured to Peshawar. However, the choppers flew to troubled spot after waiting for hours at Ghalanai, the regional headquarters of the Mohmand Agency, to let the situation become normal and allow the US planes to return to their bases in Afghanistan.

The sources said the US planes started bombing the Pakistani areas late Tuesday night when the Coalition troops came under attack by dozens of Taliban from various directions on both sides of the border.

Around 80 US and Afghan soldiers earlier on Tuesday had moved towards Speena Sooka (White Peak) in the contested Sheikh Baba area, where Pakistan and Afghanistan for the past several years had wanted to set up a security check-post.

Both the neighbouring counties have been claiming the ownership of this strategically-important mountainous area, which on various occasions in the past resulted in violent clashes between the troops of the two countries.

However, the US troops backed by gunship helicopters and unmanned drones on Tuesday set up a military post on the disputed land and reportedly fired shots at the Pakistani security personnel when they offered resistance.

US military officials have reportedly complained that militants often use the same mountainous spot to infiltrate into Afghanistan to attack the allied forces.The sources said the presence of the US forces in the volatile area provoked both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and consequently they attacked them.

The Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani militants affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud-led Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) reportedly sandwiched the US troops when they respectively attacked them from both sides of the border.

The US troops reportedly asked for air support from their military airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan.The sources, while quoting senior US military officials, said two US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle planes dropped 4,500-pound precision-guided bombs on the Pakistani territory, about a half-mile inside the border, about 12 miles south of Asadabad, the provincial headquarters of the bordering Kunar province.

There were also reports that a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spotted and followed the militants as they fled back to Pakistan, which caused heavy loss to the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

Some US officials were reportedly saying that the American troops stopped at the border but the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) kept constant track of the enemy, pinpointed their location and, in coordination with the Pakistani military forces, the air strike on the Taliban was carried out to eliminate the threat to the allied forces at the border.

The Pakistani villages that came under attack included Suran, Bahadur Kalley, Guloona and Speena Sooka. Also, an FC post at Gora Paro was attacked where around 50 soldiers were deputed.

According to sources, besides the FC personnel and villagers, several militants were also killed in the US air strikes that continued till Wednesday morning.Maulvi Omar, TTP spokesman, told The News on telephone that 14 of their people died in the skirmish, eight of them from Bajaur while six belonged to the Mohmand Agency. He also claimed that their fighters had captured eight soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Similarly, Zabeehullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, also called this correspondent from an undisclosed location and claimed they had shot down a US chopper at Sarkano area in Kunar.

He also claimed that the Taliban had killed 20 US paratroopers when they parachuted in Kunar on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.Mujahid said 11 Taliban were killed and seven others were injured in the clash with the US troops on the Pak-Afghan border.

APP adds: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, while condemning the allied forces’ attack in the tribal region, said the government will take stand on the sovereignty, dignity and self respect of Pakistan.

Speaking here at the National Assembly on a point of order by Engr Amir Muqam, the prime minister said: “We strongly condemn this attack,” adding that no one would be allowed to carry out such attacks on Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the American Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson was summoned to the Foreign Office on Wednesday and a protest over the incident was lodged. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir conveyed the resentment of the government to the ambassador, said Foreign Office officials.

The foreign secretary told Patterson that the attack was unprovoked and a gross violation of international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The senseless use of airpower against a Pakistani border post by the coalition forces is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that it (the attack) constituted a blatant and willful negation of the huge sacrifices that Pakistan had made in its endeavour to combat terrorism.

AFP adds from Washington: A US air strike in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday was “legitimate” and “self-defence”, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.“Although it is early, every indication we have is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defence against forces that had attacked the coalition forces,” Morrell said.

Pakistan has warned that the air-strike near the Afghanistan border has harmed cooperation with the United States in the “war on terror”.The US State Department said earlier Wednesday it was “sad to see the loss of life” among allied Pakistani troops.

“This is a regrettable incident. We’re sad to see the loss of life among the Pakistani military, who are our partners in fighting terror,” Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, told reporters.

“This is a reminder that better cross-border communications between forces is vital,” said the director of press relations, reading from a statement.“We are sure that military on both sides will look into the matter and review how to prevent recurrence and how to prevent extremists from using this area,” he added.Gallegos added that the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, met with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to “discuss the incident”, but gave no details of the talks.

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