...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
helicopters of violating Pakistain's air space over the Taliban and Haqqani stronghold of North
Wazoo, along the Afghan border.Oh, noze!
"Two helicopters intruded several kilometres inside Pakistain territory in Datta Khel town around 2:00 am (2100 GMT Tuesday)," a military official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
... for fear of being murdered...
The helicopters flew in from the eastern Afghan province of Paktia and circled the border village of Zoi Nara for more than five minutes, the official in the picturesque provincial capital Beautiful Downtown Peshawar said.
But a front man for NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force told AFP that their "operational reporting" showed that no ISAF helicopter crossed the border, which is unmarked in many places.
A Pak military official said the choppers left after "warning shots" were fired by Pakistain troops.
Missed them, huh?
Officials said they were not attack helicopters.
So the guys shooting the "warning shots" weren't wiped out.
Dildar Khan,
"It's a khan! It's a marital aid! By Ronco!"
a tribal police official in Datta Khel, said the helicopters flew at a relatively low altitude and returned after the warning shots.
Militants are dug in on both sides of the border and US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another George C. Marshall...
last week called on Pakistain to do more to squeeze bad boy havens on its territory, particularly those of the Haqqani network.
NATO said on Monday that 200 Taliban-linked Death Eaters were killed or captured in military operations lasting about a week along the border designed to hit the insurgency hard ahead of the winter, when rebels retreat to hideouts.
NATO commanders in Afghanistan have reported a huge increase in rocket attacks from Pak territory over the summer.
Pak officials have also complained about an increase in cross-border attacks from Afghanistan.
In the tribal district of Bajaur, officials said an anti-Taliban elder was killed by mortar rounds fired across the border from Afghanistan.
At least six mortar shells landed in Zarri village in Mamound district, 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Khar, the main town in Bajaur, local administration official Shah Nasim told AFP.
"A tribal elder Malik Rehman was killed when one shell hit his house,"Nasim said.
An intelligence official said the shells were fired from Afghan province Kunar and that Rehman was member of a government-sponsored anti-Taliban milita.