Fifteen people including women and children were killed in northwestern Pakistan Wednesday in a raid involving helicopter gunships used by international troops in Afghanistan, security officials said. Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said aircraft belonging to foreign forces in Afghanistan attacked three houses at 4:30 a.m. (2230 GMT). He declined to comment further, saying the Foreign Ministry was investigating. A top security official told AFP that "(f)our helicopter gunships from across the border carried out the raid."
A local official in South Waziristan tribal district claimed the helicopters dropped soldiers from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan (ISAF) in the border village of Jalal Khel and flew them back after the attack.
Assault on sovereignty
The official, Mowaz Khan, said the pre-dawn raid took place as residents were having their last meal before fasting as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said the foreign soldiers opened fire on the locals when they came out of their houses upon hearing the sound of helicopters.
The attack is likely to spark uproar in Pakistan where it will be seen as undermining sovereignty at a time when a new civilian government is struggling to assert authority in the turbulent nuclear-armed state. "It is outrageous," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier province, said in a statement. "This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," he said.
However, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said he was not aware of such an operation. He added that ISAF does not have a mandate to attack outside the borders of Afghanistan unless its troops come under fire from within Pakistan, in which case the force can respond with artillery.
Pakistan's army confirmed there had been an attack. "We confirm an attack was carried out in a border village and we are gathering details," army spokesman Major Murad Khan told AFP.
Lauch pad for attacks
Raids with helicopters or aircraft are extremely rare but U.S. media recently reported that the United States was planning direct attacks on Pakistani soil, blaming Islamabad for failing to tackle militants based there.
A recent series of missile strikes targeting rebels in Pakistan has been attributed to U.S.-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.