Pakistani troops cross in Afghan Paktia province, wage attack

Pakistan is notorious for cross-border infiltration in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, Iran, and Afghanistan.  The latest and most serious incident to date in recent years.

Pakistani, Afghan Troops Clash at Border
By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer
6:58 AM PDT, May 13, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire at their rugged border Sunday in their most serious skirmish in years. Pakistan claimed it killed six Afghan soldiers, but Afghanistan said just two Afghan civilians were killed.

Tension has been running high between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both key U.S. allies, over controlling their 1,510-mile shared border and stemming the flow of Taliban and al-Qaida militants that stage cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan's move to fence parts of the disputed frontier has also angered Afghanistan.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad accused the Afghan army of firing at Pakistani border posts: "This was unprovoked and without any reason."

Troops from Pakistan's Frontier Corps returned fire and "six, seven" Afghans were killed, Arshad said, adding the Pakistani troops were able to see the casualties inflicted by looking across the border at Afghan posts a few hundred yards away. Three Pakistani troops were wounded, he said.

On the Afghan side, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi accused Pakistani forces of crossing more than a mile into Afghanistan's Paktia province.

"Border police tried to stopped them, and the Pakistani army started firing heavy weapons toward the Afghan forces," he said.

Two students were killed, he said.

Paktia Gov. Rahmatullah Rahmat said the Afghan forces fired in self-defense after the Pakistani soldiers launched artillery rounds and troops on foot attacked a border security post Sunday morning in the province's Jaji district.

"The Pakistanis launched artillery, shot their guns, and they left behind civilian casualties in the area. It is a clear violation -- crossing the border to attack Afghanistan," Rahmat said.

Azimi claimed that thousands of locals joined the Afghan forces after the clash, which he described as the worst in years between the two countries.

Afghanistan accuses the government in Islamabad of harboring and helping supporters of the former Taliban regime ousted in late 2001, which Pakistan denies.

___

Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.