[Dawn] Pakistain has upgraded its air defence system on the Afghan border to make it capable of shooting down aircraft, after NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers, a security official told AFP on Friday.
"Now we have a fully equipped air defence system on the Afghan border. It has the capability to trace and detect any aircraft," the official in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar told AFP by telephone.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the step had been taken to avert air incursions from Afghanistan and to respond to any future air strikes.
"The system has also been upgraded to immediately respond after detecting any aircraft or helicopter and to shoot it down," he added.
Pakistain shut its border to NATO supply convoys on November 26, the same day as the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
The government also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base in the southwest, widely reported as a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistain's border area with Afghanistan.
Pakistain gave tacit support to the programme, but no US drone strike has been reported on Pak soil since November 17.
The November 26 attacks brought the fragile Pak-US alliance to a fresh low, already reeling from an American stealth raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who went titzup one dark and stormy night...
in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
on May 2.
It was after that raid, conducted by US Navy SEALs who flew in from Afghanistan, that Pakistain first upgraded its defence systems on the border.
US President Barack
Why can't I just eat my waffle?Obama has expressed condolences over the November 26 border deaths, insisting it was not a "deliberate attack" by NATO as claimed by the Mighty Pak Army.