The NATO airstrike that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead at two military posts near the Afghan border came after a joint U.S-Afghan operation against Taliban insurgents ran into a storm of fire from the Pakistan side of the border, several U.S. and Afghan sources say. Gen. James N. Mattis, Commander of U.S. Central Command, appointed Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark on Monday to lead an inquiry into the killings, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Officials were making few on-the-record statements about the attack, citing the need for a thorough review.
But military officials have told The Washington Examiner that Afghan commandos and U.S. Special Operations Forces were conducting a raid against Taliban insurgents in eastern Kunar Province along the Pakistan border, and had taken direct fire from an area where two Pakistani military posts are located. NATO responded with airstrikes to the location of the enemy fire, they said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said NATO forces fired back in response “to the direct threat against them.”
“This is not the first time [Pakistani military] were firing on Afghan and U.S. bases from the Pakistan side of the border but this time they fired many times,” said an Afghan official with knowledge of the incident.
Pakistan has denied that its military fired on the coalition forces, saying the two-hour fight was unprovoked.
Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings Jr., a spokesman for NATO, said an initial investigation “is still ongoing.”
When asked what the U.S. policy is regarding Pakistan and cross border fire, Cummings said, “Under the U.N. mandate, the coalition charter extends to the border and within the sovereign territory of Afghanistan,” but that American soldiers retain the right to self-defense.
But some American military officers said the firing from Pakistan at U.S. and Afghan positions has increased throughout the year, and that requests for retaliatory strikes are often denied.
“It’s not uncommon for us to come under fire by what we believe is Pakistan military,” a U.S. military official said. “The situation for our troops is intensified if [the attack] comes from Pakistan — particularly from locations where Pakistani military units are present because the strike is almost always called off. We are not given permission to fire back. It seems in this situation that rule didn’t apply.”
In October, The Examiner reported that Pakistani military units have been firing at Afghan and U.S. soldiers along the Afghanistan border during the past year. In May, U.S. Apache helicopter crews were fired upon by Pakistan, and they returned fire, wounding at least two Pakistani soldiers, according to officials. In October, news reports described more than 300 rocket attacks from Pakistan across the border. Pakistan claimed it was targeting militants.
Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a joint statement offering their condolences for the loss of life and promising a full investigation.
But the episode appeared likely to bring relations between the U.S and Pakistan, already badly tattered by the American mission into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden in May, to a new low.
On Monday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told CNN that there would be “no more business as usual” with Washington. U.S. officials are concerned that supply routes from Pakistan into the region will be attacked and the New York Times reported the closure of Western Shamsi Air Base this weekend. The base is used by the CIA to conduct secret drone attacks.
The Afghan-Pakistan border is likely to remain the scene of murky encounters between deadly enemies, said Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst and expert on Pakistan with the Heritage Foundation think-tank.
“The military situation along the border is not black and white and it is not always clear from where the enemy fire originates,” she said. “Insurgents on the Pakistan side often fire at NATO forces from areas in close proximity to Pakistan Army posts, which lends itself to confusion about the precise location of the enemy.”
Cummings, the NATO spokesman, said, “Insurgents purposely take advantage of the unclear border area and routinely fire on both sides from both Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
For U.S. soldiers, the stakes in these confusing encounters could not be higher.
“We play these games and risk our own lives,” said an American soldier serving in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. “Why aren’t our commanders telling the truth? We know Pakistan troops fire on us but we pretend it isn’t happening.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
