US and Afghans attack enemy in Pakistan

Washington Post:

At least 20 people were killed in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday after U.S. and Afghan troops crossed from Afghanistan to pursue Taliban insurgents in an early morning attack that marked the first known instance in which U.S. forces conducted an operation on Pakistani soil since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began, according to witnesses and a Pakistani official.

The United States has conducted occasional air and artillery strikes against insurgents lodged across the border in Pakistani territory, and "hot pursuit" rules provide some room for U.S. troops to maneuver in the midst of battle. But the arrival of three U.S. helicopters in the village of Musa Nika, clearly inside the Pakistani border, drew a sharp response from Pakistani officials.

"We strongly object to the incursion of ISAF troops on Pakistani territory," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistani military, referring to the International Security Assistance Force, the coalition of U.S. and other NATO troops that has been battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan since 2001.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan referred requests for comment on the incident to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa. A CENTCOM spokesman reached by phone in Tampa on Wednesday declined to comment.

Many details of the incident remain unclear, including the number of ground troops and helicopters involved, and whether U.S. troops were among those that left the helicopters and conducted a ground operation in the village. Pakistani military officials said two helicopters landed at Musa Nika, while villagers said there were three.

According to Pakistani military and other sources, the attack began a little after 3 a.m. when three U.S. army helicopters carrying American and Afghan troops landed in Musa Nika in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan. According to a Pakistani security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly on the incident, several of the troops then left the helicopters and launched a ground assault on three houses where Taliban fighters were believed to be hiding.

One of the homes belonged to a villager named Pao Jan Ahmedzai Wazir, a local tribesman, said Anwar Shah, a resident of a neighboring village. Several women and children who were inside Wazir's house and two other homes nearby were killed when U.S. and Afghan troops opened fire on the buildings. "The situation there is very terrible. People are trying to take out the dead bodies," Shah said.

Maj. Murad Khan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said Pakistani authorities have verified that an attack took place in South Waziristan a little before 4 a.m. But he could not confirm whether U.S. troops were involved until an investigation into the incident is complete.

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The problem with this story is that the US has allowed it to become an enemy information operation. The only defense the enemy has to our air assaults is to claim civilian casualties. They are losing credibility on that point, but when the military allows the enemy to be the only source of information about an attack it is ceding territory in the media battle space.

I suspect that this was a special operations mission against a high value target. The silence suggest that it might even be an attack against one of al Qaeda's top leaders. At some point the military has to realize that the media battle space has its own OODA loop and they need to engage in that battle space too.

Bill Roggio has more on the story including the confused reporting from Pakistan on the raid.

The response from Pakistan is probably perfunctory and for local consumption.

The raid probably caught the enemy off guard because Pakistan had suspended its operations for a month, and the US has generally refrained from cross border attacks.

If it was indeed a boots on the ground attack, it suggest an attempt to capture someone. If they were merely trying to kill someone it would be easier and less risky to fire Hellfire missiles at their compound. The boots on the ground scenario also argues against the report of indiscriminate killing of non combatants.

Whenever the Taliban claim civilian casualties, I am immediately skeptical that it is an information op to cover a bad loss for their side. If Mullah Omar or Zawahiri was pulled from that compound I would not be that surprised.