Posted on 10/06/2010 1:18:39 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strengthened its air defense with a view to preventing NATO forces from intruding into its territory from Afghanistan.
The strong US ally has installed anti-aircraft missiles in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, well-placed sources told Arab News here on Monday.
“Now no helicopter will be able to escape after entering into Pakistani territory,” the official sources said.
Meanwhile, NATO’s chief expressed regret on Monday for the deaths of Pakistani soldiers last week and said he hoped Pakistan’s border would reopen for NATO supplies to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Angered by repeated attacks by NATO helicopters on militant targets within its borders, Pakistan blocked one of the supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan after a strike killed three Pakistani soldiers in the western Kurram region.
Analysts and Western officials said Pakistan’s closure of the border for a few days would not seriously impact the war effort in Afghanistan, but it would create political tension that Pakistan could exploit.
“I expressed my regret for the incident last week in which Pakistani soldiers lost their lives,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Brussels.
“I expressed my hope the border will be open for supplies as soon as possible.”
The apology came after gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks taking goods to Western forces in Afghanistan on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital, killing three guards.
Pakistani Taleban militants claimed responsibility.
Hours later, suspected militants attacked trawlers carrying supplies for NATO through the southwestern province of Baluchistan, killing one man, police said.
Late on Monday, two missiles from a suspected CIA drone struck a mosque in Mirali in North Waziristan, about 20 km east of the main town of Miranshah, intelligence officials said. Three people were killed.
Pakistan has officially said the border has been closed for security reasons and the Taleban threat of more attacks will likely prolong the closure of the vital supply route — now in its fifth day — and further strain ties with ally Washington, which has long demanded Pakistan crack down on militants.
About half of all non-lethal supplies for Western forces in land-locked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan, giving Pakistan considerable leverage over the United States, which needs Pakistan for help in containing the insurgency in Afghanistan.
“Efforts are underway to resolve this issue, but there is a lot of anger in Pakistan about the border incursion,” a senior Pakistani government official said.
ISAF spokesman Maj. Joel Harper told Reuters in Kabul that the border closure wouldn’t impact the mission, but that the supply lines are “an important element of the Pakistani economy. It’s important to our logistics stocks.”
The closures would force more supplies through NATO’s northern supply route through Russia and the central Asian republics, he said.
“NATO authorities have all along anticipated disruptions in the supply chain and have been stockpiling supplies in advance,” said Kamran Bokhari, South Asia director at STRATFOR global intelligence.
Andrew Exum, a fellow with the Center for a New American Security and former adviser on Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment team in Afghanistan, said the closures mattered little tactically.
“Even though it’s painful it doesn’t cripple the mission,” he said. “The larger strategic issue is that we’re seeing a period of rising public tension between the United States and Pakistan.”
“It’s clear the Pakistanis are frustrated with the United States,” he continued. “It’s clear the Pakistanis are frustrated with the drone strikes in Pakistan. What I don’t think the Pakistanis understand is how frustrated the Americans and the American public are with the Pakistanis.”
Despite its anger, Pakistan can’t afford to long antagonize an ally that provides $2 billion in military aid a year — aid vital for Pakistan’s own fight against militants, analysts say.
“There has to be some solution and I think there will be one. But there is an anger and you have to address it,” a Pakistani security official said.
Officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad said despite the protests by Pakistan and the closing of the border, cooperation in flood relief missions and security assistance continues.
Rasmussen said the killing of the three Pakistani soldiers was unintended and showed the need to improve coordination between the NATO and the Pakistani military. He said a joint investigation was under way.
“It is important we step up our cooperation,” he said.
That cooperation could be slow in coming, however, because a stepped up campaign of drone strikes has infuriated many Pakistanis and made it harder for the government to cooperate with the United States.
The strikes preceded warnings by Britain and the United States of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, with Washington saying Al-Qaeda might target transport infrastructure.
— With input from agencies
I believe its time for the MOABs.
It sounds like they plan to shoot down our planes and/or helicopters. They are an ally, right?
Even the Pakistanis can’t be that stupid.
Nuke em from high orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Call their bluff! If they lock into any US or NATO aircraft, take out the site and then carpet bomb the entire Paki side of the border...over and over again! Then nuke it for good measure!
A bigger picture is emerging here though. If Pak can't shut up and passively allow us to target threats in their border regions....They become a National Security liability not a quasi ally. There is a huge difference there.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -Albert Einstein
And they closed our supply lines. THis is going to get nasty and we have the ultimate PC Pussy in the White House.
Stop giving these idiots money.
TIme to play our “India Card”.
After we get thru with Iran (I’m dreaming of course under the Coward In Chief we have), then we should nuke Pakistan and call it a good day.
Thanks Eyes Unclouded. Gosh, I wonder whose planes they plan to target?
The Dems are SO happy that we dumped Musharref.
Can Pakistan really be that stupid?
For the second night in a row, The Wall Street Journal has the story on US officials’ mounting frustration with Pakistan. According to the WSJ, US defense and intelligence officials and even Taliban commanders are now saying that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate is urging the Taliban to step up the violence in Afghanistan:
Members of Pakistan’s spy agency are pressing Taliban field commanders to fight the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials and Afghan militants say, a development that undercuts a key element of the Pentagon’s strategy for ending the war.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/10/pakistan_urges_taliban_to_step.php
“Massive attacks against our supplies such as we’ve seen over the past several days have been rare inside Pakistan, yet the KP [the Khyber Pass] is closed, and all of the sudden the Taliban is roaming wild, destroying convoys at will?” one intelligence official said. “Look at the location of these attacks: they are well out outside Taliban heartlands in the northwest or along the border in Baluchistan. Where is the security? Either the Pakistani military is turning a blind eye to the attacks, or it is directing them, and neither prospect is good.”
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/10/taliban_torch_anothe_1.php
Most probably: The Pakistani military is directing them.
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