Nato helicopters kill 'dozens of rebels' in Pakistan

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

Nato-led forces say they have killed more than 50 insurgents on Pakistani soil after a rare pursuit across the border from Afghanistan.

Two Apache helicopters from the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan are said to have taken part in the weekend's operation.

It followed an attack by insurgents on an Afghan security outpost in Khost. Isaf said no civilians were killed in the operation, but this has not been independently confirmed.

The BBC's Ian Pannell in the Afghan capital, Kabul, says that although manned military raids over the border are not unprecedented, it will no doubt prove controversial in Pakistan.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11416088

---

Map sourced from this BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7601748.stm">The Afghan-Pakistan militant nexus

[EFerrari]

1. After all these years and all the killing

the first thing I think is, please let this not be a wedding.

[Dr.Phool]

2. Those damned rebellious women and 7 year olds.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Insurgents

"Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!"

- Helicopter door gunner in _Full Metal Jacket_.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S06nIz4scvI

[Turborama]

4. More details from NYT: NATO Carries Out Air Strikes Inside Pakistan

By ROD NORDLAND
Published: September 27, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO forces in Afghanistan launched two air strikes against Taliban insurgents on the Pakistani side of the border, killing more than 30 people, military spokesmen confirmed on Monday. The air strikes, which took place last Friday and Saturday, were unusual because they involved manned aircraft rather than unmanned drones, which are more commonly used to attack insurgents on the Pakistani side of the border, and which are normally operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Spokesmen for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force initially denied any of its forces had launched the air strikes, although they were confirmed by Afghan police officials.

On Monday, however, an ISAF statement confirmed the attacks, and put the death toll at more than 30. Initially, a base close to the border in Khost Province, known as Combat Outpost Narizah, came under fire from insurgents on Friday. When what the military described as an “air weapons team” responded, they came under fire from the insurgents on the Pakistani side of the frontier, and returned fire, killing at least 30. When two ISAF helicopters returned to the area the next day, they were fired on again from the Pakistani side of the border, and again returned fire, killing several more insurgents, spokesmen said.

The Khost Provincial Police Chief, Gen. Abdul Hakim Isahqzai, put the death toll among the insurgents at 82 or higher. There have been no complaints of civilian casualties in the incidents.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/world/asia/28pstan.html?_r=1

[Turborama]

5. Could have possibly been the same Khost outpost this 44 minute documentary was filmed at

The Last Outpost
A rare insight into the lives of Afghan soldiers and the US trainers trying to equip them to defend their country.
Last Modified: 01 Sep 2010 12:14

Filmmakers: Timothy Grucza and Yuri Maldavsky

The US military presence in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular. Local resentment is growing as civilian casualties from air strikes rise, and back in the US the appetite for this war seems to be on the wane.

Now, one of the primary goals of US forces in Afghanistan is to train the fragmented Afghan National Army (ANA), to enable them to maintain security for themselves and allow the US government to reduce its troop numbers in the country.

Filmmakers Timothy Grucza and Yuri Maldavsky spent six weeks embedded with the 130-strong elite ANA unit, the "Black Rifles" and their eight US trainers in the remote Spera army outpost in Khost on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Life for the Afghan and US troops in Spera, led by Afghan commander Commandante Ibrahim and US National Guard volunteer Major Fleischman, is harsh, isolated and dangerous.

The Last Outpost is an extraordinarily intimate portrait of the realities of modern warfare and a rare insight into the beliefs and motivations of Afghan soldiers, civilians and Taliban supporters alike.

The Last Outpost aired from Sunday, August 29, 2010.

Available to watch here: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2010/08/2010831103613434199.html

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNnlVGEVXA

Wikipedia article on Spera: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spera,_Khost_Province

[cosmicone]

6. This is long overdue

There will be no win in Afghanistan unless the war is in Pakistan where the terrorists are trained, armed and funded.

On 60 minutes last night, the field commanders were saying the Afghani Taliban are novices whereas the "foreign fighters", particularly Pakistanis are extremely well-trained and equipped. Now, where can Pakistani Taliban get sophisticated military training?


It is Pakistan's game to force Americans and NATO to leave so that they can control Afghanistan for their strategic depth policy and grab all weapons and military hardware left behind to then use against India.

In order to win in Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan has to be drastically curtained so that the military is starved and would be unable to fund and execute terrorist operations inside Afghanistan.

Remember what life for Afghanis was under Taliban? It will return if we don't do this.

[Turborama]

7. The Guardian: Pakistan furious over Nato cross-border Taliban raids

Saeed Shah in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 September 2010 17.54 BST

Pakistan reacted angrily today after Nato said US helicopters had crossed into its territory from Afghanistan to attack militants, claiming to have killed more than 50 Taliban fighters.

The admission that two incursions had taken place over the weekend by helicopters from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), and possibly a further cross-border raid today, came after recent reports of a covert CIA military force in Afghanistan that crosses into Pakistan to kill Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned the incursions as a "clear violation and breach of the UN mandate under which Isaf operates", saying it had made a formal protest to Nato. "In the absence of immediate corrective measures, Pakistan will be constrained to consider response options," said Abdul Basit, the foreign ministry spokesman.

=snip=

Nato was seeking to justify the breach of Pakistani territory as self-defence or "hot-pursuit", which have some defence under international law. Pakistan is forced into the position of having to react angrily, because if it did not, it may have profound consequences for the Pakistan eastern border with arch-enemy India. There, India could use the same logic for pursuing extremists into Pakistani territory.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/27/pakistan-nato-raid-afghanistan-taliban

[gratuitous]

9. "Pakistan is forced into the position of having to react angrily"

Yeah, border incursions by a foreign strike force will do that, and it doesn't have a goddam thing to do with possible incursions from the Indian side of Pakistan. Is it possible for exceptional Americans to grasp how we might feel if a foreign power - governmental or otherwise - carried out a kill mission on U.S. soil? But of course, such a thing would never happen, but if it did, I'm sure we'd be very understanding, even if a couple of unlucky civilians were annihilated in the action. Fortunes of war and all that.

[Turborama]

8. MSNBC reports on another cross border attack by helicopters carried out today

'Self-defense': NATO choppers strike Pakistan

=snip=

Meanwhile, Pakistani intelligence officials said two NATO helicopters carried out a third strike inside Pakistani territory on Monday morning, killing five militants and wounding nine others.

The strike occurred in the village of Mata Sanger in the Kurram tribal area, which is directly across the border from the Afghan provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Donald, the NATO spokesman, said officials were still investigating and could not confirm or deny reports of the attack in Kurram.

The Pakistani military could not be reached to comment on the NATO attacks.

Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39376671/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/