US forces launch ground assault inside Pakistan

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US forces launch ground assault inside Pakistan

By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer

5 minutes ago

American forces launched a raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a senior

U.S. military official said, in the first known U.S. ground assault

in Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven. The government

condemned the attack, saying it killed at least 15 people.

The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of

the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press

that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the

Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry protested saying U.S.-led troops flew in

from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in the country's wild

tribal belt. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent

escalation from recent foreign 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 directly to

Pakistan's complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who

agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested

the target of any raid like that reported Wednesday would have to be

extremely important to risk an almost assured " big backlash " from

Pakistan.

" You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less

once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms

of Pakistani cooperation, " the official said.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks killed at least two al-Qaida

commanders this year in the same region, drawing protests from

Pakistan's government that its sovereignty was under attack. U.S.

officials did not acknowledge any involvement in those attacks.

But American commanders have been complaining publicly that Pakistan

puts too little pressure on militant groups that are blamed for

mounting violence in Afghanistan, stirring speculation that U.S.

forces might lash out across the frontier.

Circumstances surrounding Wednesday's raid weren't clear, but U.S.

rules of engagement allow American troops to chase militants across

the border into Pakistan's lawless tribal region when they are

attacked. They may only go about six miles on the ground, under

normal circumstances. U.S. rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into

Pakistan air space.

The raid comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Pakistan

government which is trying to overcome political divisions and choose

a new president on the one hand, while the army is battling the

militants on the other.

In other signs of Pakistan's precarious stability three days before

legislators elect a successor to Pervez Musharraf as president,

snipers shot at the prime minister's limousine near Islamabad and

government troops killed two dozen militants in another area of the

restive northwest.

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. "

Prior to the U.S. military confirming the U.S. raid, Pakistan

government and military officials had insisted that either the NATO

force or the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan — both commanded by

American generals — were responsible. A spokesman for NATO troops in

Afghanistan denied any involvement.

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.

" We cannot afford a huge uprising at the level of tribe, " Abbas

said. " That would be completely counterproductive and doesn't help

the cause of fighting terrorism in the area. "

The Pakistani anger threatens to upset efforts by American commanders

to draw Pakistan's military into the U.S. strategy of dealing harshly

with the militants.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met last

week with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani army chief. Mullen said

he came away encouraged that Pakistanis were becoming more focused on

the problem of militants using the country as a safe haven.

However, Abbas, the army spokesman, said Wednesday that cross-border

commando operations were not discussed and he reiterated Pakistan's

position that its forces should be exclusively responsible for

operations on its territory.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. and NATO should share intelligence

and allow Pakistani troops to execute any raids needed inside

Pakistan. However, Washington has accused rogue elements in

Pakistan's main intelligence service of leaking sensitive information

to militants.

American officials say destroying militant sanctuaries in Pakistani

tribal regions is key to defeating Taliban-led militants in

Afghanistan whose insurgency has strengthened every year since the

fundamentalist militia was ousted for harboring bin Laden.

But there has been debate in Washington over how far the U.S. can go

on its own.

Citing witness and intelligence reports, Abbas said troops flew in on

at least one big CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, blasted their

way into several houses and gunned down men they found there.

He said there was no evidence that any of those killed were

insurgents or that the raiders abducted any militant leader, but he

acknowledged Pakistan's military had no firsthand account.

There were differing reports on how many people were killed. The

provincial governor claimed 20 civilians, including women and

children, died. Army and intelligence officials, as well as

residents, said 15 people were killed.

Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said he heard helicopters, then

an exchange of gunfire.

" Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been

shot in the head, " Wazir said by phone. He claimed all the dead were

civilians.

Near Islamabad, meanwhile, snipers fired at a motorcade near the

capital as it headed to the airport to pick up the prime minister,

hitting the window of his car at least twice, officials said. Neither

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani nor his staff were in the vehicles.

Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the banned militant organization Tahrik-

e-Taliban, claimed responsibility and pledged more attacks in

retaliation for army operations in tribal areas and the Swat Valley

along the border with Afghanistan.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined to

comment on the claimed cross-border raid, but she said the U.S. would

continue to work with Gilani's government.

" I am relieved, of course, that the incident aimed at the Pakistani

prime minister did not succeed, " Rice said.

" We're going to be in continued contact with the Pakistanis as we

both try to help them to build a strong economic foundation, to build

a strong democratic foundation and to fight the terrorists who are a

threat not just to the United States and to Afghanistan but to

Pakistan as well. "

___

Associated Press writers Pamela Hess, ine Jelinek and Lee

in Washington, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Munir Ahmad and

Graham in Islamabad and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed

to this report.

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authority of The Associated Press.