11 Pakistani Paramilitaries Dead; Pakistan Blames US

Pakistan is blaming a US air-strike in Pakistan as the reason for the death of 11 paramilitary soldiers. The air-strike occurred in the Mohmand tribal region after Afghan forces tried to set up a mountain-top post. The Afghan forces forces were attacked by the taliban and allegedly Pakistani paramilitary forces. AP

This is a case of the Pakistani paramilitary either helping the taliban or doing nothing to stop them.

Pakistan's army on Wednesday accused the U.S.-led coalition of killing 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops in an airstrike along the volatile Afghan border.

A Pakistani army statement said the clash in the Mohmand tribal region "had hit at the very basis of cooperation" between the two countries in the war on terror.

The strike late Tuesday followed a reported clash between Afghan forces and Taliban militants in the same area. The Taliban said eight of its fighters died in the skirmish.

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Pakistani officials said the fighting broke out Tuesday after Afghan troops tried to set up a mountaintop post in a contested part of the lawless frontier and Pakistani security forces told them to withdraw.

Local tribesman Damagh Khan Mohmand said the Afghan forces had moved into the area around Speena Sooka, or White Peak, on Monday evening and were supported by foreign troops. There was no confirmation of that from the U.S.-led coalition or NATO security force in Afghanistan.

Khan Mohmand said tribesmen traded fire with the Afghan and foreign forces, and said Pakistani security forces also opened fire — although the military disputed that.

The army said the coalition airstrike hit a post of the paramilitary Frontier Corps and was a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act."

Khan Mohmand said he saw drones and that two aircraft had bombed several locations.

Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for an umbrella group of Pakistani Taliban, said militants had resisted an incursion into Pakistan.

He said between 60 and 100 of its fighters attacked NATO and Afghan army troops who had set up bunkers and tents on Pakistani soil. He claimed up to 40 Afghan troops were killed, several captured and that a NATO helicopter was shot down. Eight Taliban troops also died in the fighting, he said.

None of his claims could be independently confirmed.