NATO close air support kills 28 Pakistan soldiers

Reuters:
NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down vital NATO supply routes intoAfghanistan, used for sending in just under a third of the alliance's supplies.
The attack is the worst single incident of its kind since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington in the days immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan, its ally in the war on militancy, have been strained following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a raid on the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in May, which Pakistan called a flagrant violation of sovereignty.
A spokesman for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan confirmed that NATO aircraft had been called in to support troops in the area and had probably killed some Pakistani soldiers.
"Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties," said General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
He added that he could not confirm the number of casualties, but ISAF is investigating the "tragic development."
"We are aware that Pakistani soldiers perished. We don't know the size, the magnitude," he said.
The Pakistani government and military brimmed with fury.
... 
The story is short on details of the firefight that prompted the close air support.  None of the other reports I have seen on the action offer any details either at this point.  It is probable that the Taliban was using he Pakistan bases or operating close to them in attacking US troops.  It is also possible that the Pakistan troops were actually supporting the attack on the NATO troops.

The story has a good bit about the Pakistan high dudgeon resulting from the attack, but it is not expecting to have a long term effect on the situation in Afghanistan.  When they close the passes to the convoys they are also hurting the business of the Pakistan truckers.

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