Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:34am EDT

KHAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants in Pakistan executed a woman after accusing her of being a spy for the U.S. and a prostitute, and said others would face the same fate, a government official and villagers said on Wednesday.

It was the first time that a woman had been killed in northwest Pakistan after being accused of spying although militants have killed many men they accused of helping U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

The body of the unidentified woman was found dumped beside a road near the town of Khar in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border, a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

more

Ever consider the local militia from a region that is pro taliban may have been linking up with the taliban elements engaging US forces? It may also be reasonable to assume that the US had element on the groud coordinating or at least confirming the Paramilitary personnel as Hostile.

Reuters

"...Coalition forces informed the Pakistan Army that they were being engaged by anti-Afghan forces ...," the U.S. military said in a statement. It added that coalition forces were engaged by anti-Afghan forces during an operation "that had been previously coordinated with Pakistan".

I believe it was coordinated with Pakistan, but not that they would necessarily follow into Pakistan.

AP, By Stephen Graham, June 12

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan released footage Thursday of a skirmish with militants that Pakistan claims resulted in an airstrike on one of its border posts that killed 11 of its troops.

Pakistan has lodged a strong diplomatic protest, saying the bombing of the Gorparai post in the Mohmand frontier region on Tuesday was a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act."

But Pakistani and U.S. officials have given widely differing accounts of an event that threatens to further sour relations between key allies in Washington's war on terror _ _ a partnership already unpopular among Pakistanis.

To support its version, the coalition on Thursday took the unusual step of releasing excerpts of a video shot by a surveillance drone circling above the mountainous battle zone.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3ee_1213234513

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has for a long time been split over strategic questions in Afghanistan. These divisions will be further sharpened following Tuesday evening's attack by United States warplanes on a Pakistani military post in Mohmand Agency in which 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed.

Indications that Pakistani soldiers were fighting alongside Taliban forces against Afghan army and US units in the border area will also bolster critics of US policy who argue that the Pakistani military is playing a "double game" and can no longer be trusted. All the same, should NATO "lose" Pakistan, it would be a devastating setback.

While the precise circumstances of the incident remain unclear, an eye witness, Taliban spokesman Zubair Mujahid, who represents the Taliban's commanders for Kunar and Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan, told Asia Times Online by telephone: "The multiple Taliban groups operating on both sides of the border - in the Afghan Kunar Valley and in Mohmand Agency - spotted NATO forces launching into Mohmand Agency's mountain-top Sarhasoko military post (below).

"We realized the Pakistani troops were struggling against the NATO forces so we activated our networks all over the area," Zubair said.

"The Pakistani security forces were under siege and were at the point of being evacuated from the post when we opened fire on them [NATO] from several positions. Our attack was so unexpected for NATO that they had to retreat. The Pakistan army lost 11 soldiers, the Taliban lost eight and NATO lost 20 soldiers during the operation."

An official Pakistani armed forces release called the air strikes "unprovoked and cowardly" and added that "the incident had hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in [the] war against terror".

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, meanwhile, said, "Although it is early, every indication we have is that it was a legitimate strike in self-defense against forces that had attacked coalition forces."

Damning report
The timing of the attack coincides with the release of a report this week by the US Defense Department-funded RAND Corp, entitled "Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan", which said that some active and former officials in Pakistan's intelligence service and the Frontier Corps - a paramilitary force - directly aided Taliban militants.

Significantly - as happened on Tuesday - the report suggested direct NATO operations in the Pakistani tribal areas to root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Confusingly, at the very moment the Taliban went to aid Pakistani security forces - which will boost respect for them among the lower- and middle-order cadre of the armed forces - the Taliban kidnapped seven security personnel in Dera Adam Khail in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Mohmand Agency they exchanged fire with security forces at a checkpoint.

This contradiction highlights the complex relationships between the Taliban, militants and the Pakistani establishment: nothing can be read as black and white. What can't be ignored is that ethnic Pashtuns are natural Pakistani allies and the Pashtun heartland is overwhelmingly under the influence of the Taliban, a factor Pakistan has to factor into its regional relationships.

much more at Asia Times

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:31 HKT

ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- The US-led coalition in Afghanistan released a video Thursday of precision strikes targeting what it said were "anti-Afghan" forces, after Pakistan accused it of killing 11 of its soldiers.

The video footage, taken by an unmanned drone, shows what are described by someone speaking off-camera as "precision-guided munitions" striking a group of seven men described as "anti-Afghan" militants.

The video was released as the United States insisted that its forces were retaliating against a "hostile act" when an air strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers on the murky border with Afghanistan.

Islamabad has accused US-led forces in Afghanistan of making an unprovoked and "cowardly" attack on the checkpost in Pakistan's volatile Mohmand tribal zone, further straining ties between the "war on terror" allies.

In response, Washington said it regretted the "reported loss of Pakistani life" but insisted its forces were targeting militants.

...

"The timing is terrible," said Bruce Riedel, a senior Brookings Institute analyst as well as a former CIA officer and top advisor to three US presidents on South Asian affairs.

"Whatever little pressure Pakistan has been putting on Al Qaeda is likely to get even smaller," he told AFP.

Pakistani security officials say Afghan troops crossed the porous frontier and tried to occupy a strategic Pakistani post in the troubled tribal belt, in an area long disputed between the countries.

The Afghan troops were repulsed, the officials say, after which coalition forces bombed the area, also killing around 15 Taliban nearby.

MORE