Pakistan blocks supply route into Afghanistan

Washington Post:

Pakistani officials said Thursday that they had blocked NATO supply trucks from entering Afghanistan at one key border post after an early morning NATO airstrike that they said killed three Pakistani border security soldiers.

A senior military official said the move was made in protest of that attack and other recent NATO airstrikes in Pakistan. Pakistan believes the strikes have been carried out as "pressure tactics" meant to force the Pakistani army to conduct operations against al-Qaeda and Afghan insurgents based in the mountainous tribal area of North Waziristan, the official said.

"There is no justification for these attacks and they must come to an end with immediate effect," the military official said.

The blockade comes days after Pakistan protested NATO airstrikes that killed insurgents inside Pakistan and threatened to cut off supply routes. A security official said another NATO airstrike early today hit a different border post in Khurram Agency, a region in Pakistan's tribal belt that borders Afghanistan's Khost province, killing three soldiers and wounding three others.

Officials at the Torkham border post and in the region said they had been ordered by federal officials to stop NATO convoys. A security official said a NATO airstrike early today hit a different border post in Khurram Agency, a region in Pakistan's tribal belt that borders Afghanistan's Khost province, killing three soldiers and wounding three others.

Pakistan has reported the alleged deaths to NATO forces in Afghanistan, and NATO is investigating whether the report is linked to an airstrike this morning against insurgents in Paktia province, which also borders Pakistan, said Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a NATO spokesman. The international forces involved in that operation said the insurgents fired mortars at a coalition base from a spot inside Afghanistan and that helicopters did not cross into Pakistani airspace, Dorrian said.

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The NY Times reports:

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A NATO helicopter attacked a border post at Mandati Kandaw, a town close to the capital of Parachinar in the Kurram area of Pakistan’s tribal region, at 5 a.m. on Thursday, the official said. Three paramilitary soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed, and three others injured, he said. Another border post at Kharlachi in the Kurram region was struck a few hours later, the official added. The two posts are about 15 miles apart and border Paktia Province in Afghanistan.

The incident occurred as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, was in Islamabad for a previously scheduled visit. He was expected to meet the head of the Pakistani military, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, later on Thursday, American officials said.

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I am not sure the claims add up at this point. The US choppers have GPS systems that would tell them their location and I would be surprised if they would deliberate hit Pakistan areas unless they were under fire. It could be the border guards were trying to provoke a response while Panetta was in the country so they could get some leverage over him while he is trying to get the Pakistani government to do more to stop the attacks into Afghanistan.

While this is speculation on my part, it does make sense out of some assertions that on their face do not make any. I certainly do not think the US owes Pakistan any apology for shooting back at the Haqqanis who attacked US forces from inside Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan has a responsibility to stop them from doing that. Their claims of sovereignty are pretty weak when they allow their soil to be used to attack the US.