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2011-11-27 India-Pakistan
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Pakistan reviews US, Nato ties over lethal strike
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[Dawn] Pakistain said on Sunday it was reviewing its alliance with the United States and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
after up to 26 soldiers were killed in cross-border NATO air strikes, plunging frosty US ties into deeper crisis.
We should be reviewing our ties as well. Perhaps the Paks should be made aware that in the event of interference with operations in Afghanistan there will be a.) no more foreign aid to Pakistain, b.) no immigration from Pakistain, and c.) all Pak citizens in the U.S. have 24 hours to depart and not come back...
Pakistain sealed its Afghan border to NATO, shutting down a lifeline for the estimated 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban, and called on the United States to leave a secretive air base (Shamsi) reportedly used by CIA drones.
Islamabad protested to NATO and the United States in the strongest terms -- summoning US ambassador Cameron Munter, branding the strike a violation of international law and warning that there could be serious repercussions.
The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan admitted it was "highly likely" that the force's aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday, inflaming US-Pak relations still reeling from the May killing of the late Osama bin Laden.
... who has left the building...
The US commander in Afghanistan promised a full investigation and sent his condolences over any troops "who may have been killed" on the Afghan border with Pakistain's lawless tribal belt, branded an al Qaeda hub by Washington.
NATO troops frequently carry out operations against Taliban bully boyz close to the border with Pakistain, which in many places is unmarked, although the extent to which those operations are coordinated with Pakistain is unclear.
Afghan and US officials accuse Pak troops at worst of colluding with the Taliban or at best of standing by while bully boyz fire across the border from Pak soil, often in clear sight of Pak border posts.
At the same time Pakistain, battling its own Taliban insurgency in the northwest and dependent on billions of dollars in US aid, gives the US-led war effort in Afghanistan vital logistics support.
Key questions remain unanswered about what exactly happened in  Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
district, just hours after General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, discussed coordination with Pakistain's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
Pakistain said NATO helicopters and fighter aircraft fired "unprovoked" overnight Friday-Saturday on two army border posts, killing 24 to 26 troops and wounding 13, adding that Pak troops had returned fire.
The government said the attacks were "a grave infringement" of illusory sovereignty, a "serious transgression of the oft-conveyed red lines".
A front man for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, confirmed that foreign soldiers, working with Afghan troops, called in air support for an operation near the border.
"It's highly likely that this close air support, called by the ground forces, caused the casualties," Jacobson told AFP.
Pakistain swiftly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies -- holding up convoys at the Torkham and Chaman crossings on the main overland US supply line into landlocked Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea port of Bloody Karachi.
An extraordinary meeting of cabinet ministers and military chiefs ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base within 15 days, despite reports that American personnel had already left.
It also said the government would "undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/Isaf, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence".
In Afghanistan, Allen promised a thorough investigation "to determine the facts" and extended his condolences to the loved ones of anyone who died.
Munter expressed "regret" over any loss of life and pledged the United States would work "closely" with Pakistain to investigate.
Relations between Pakistain and the United States have been in crisis since American troops killed bin Laden near the capital without prior warning and after a CIA contractor killed two Paks in Lahore in January.
Pak, US and Afghan officials have traded complaints about responsibility for cross-border attacks, with each side accusing the other of not doing enough to prevent cut-thoat assaults on military positions.
In September 2010, Pakistain shut the main land route for NATO supplies at Torkham for 11 days after accusing NATO of killing three Pak troops.
The border was reopened after the United States formally apologised.
Americans have long accused Pakistain of playing a double game with the Taliban, and the issue came to a head in September when the then top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, accused Pakistain of colluding in a US embassy siege in Kabul.
US drones carry out routine missile attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistain's lawless tribal belt, where American officials say neutralising bully boyz is vital to winning the war in Afghanistan.
Pakistain last week forced its envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, to step down over accusations that he sought American help in limiting Pakistain's powerful military after the bin Laden raid.
His successor, Sherry Rehman, has yet to arrive in Washington. 
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Posted by Fred 2011-11-27 00:00||
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File under: Govt of Pakistan
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Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-11-27 00:10||
2011-11-27 00:10||
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Posted by Frank G 2011-11-27 00:12||
2011-11-27 00:12||
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Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-11-27 20:05||
2011-11-27 20:05||
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