Pakistan ejects US troops from FATA

Society Military and Strategic Issues
1

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5037187

U.S. Troops Hunting Militants Stray Into Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - **U.S. troops hunting Al Qaeda and Taliban militants crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan to search a Pashtun tribal village in a rare violation of the border, Pakistan’s military spokesman said Tuesday. **

News of the incident, which took place on May 2, came a day after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said foreign fighters, including members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda, were still launching attacks from Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt. The U.S. troops searched shops and a gasoline station in the village of Alwara Mandi, in North Waziristan, one of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions, during a night-time operation, according to Pakistan’s Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.

Eyewitnesses said 60 U.S. troops were involved.

The village lies just 200 yards inside Pakistan, and the soldiers returned to Afghan soil immediately they were told that they were on the wrong side of the border.

“The moment they were informed they went back. They stayed for no longer than 25 minutes,” Sultan told Reuters.

He said such incursions were very rare, although U.S. helicopters had strayed into Pakistan airspace before.

U.S. military advisers are helping Pakistan hunt militants, but President Pervez Musharraf’s government says no U.S. military action was allowed inside Pakistan. Monday, Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of the U.S.-led NATO forces in Kabul, urged Pakistan to kill or capture Arab, Chechen, Uzbek and other foreign militants holed up near the border, and expressed concern over Pakistan’s recent amnesty for several tribal militants.

There are frequent barbs from the U.S. and Afghan side that Pakistan is not doing enough, but two months ago more than 50 Pakistani troopers were killed in a battle with al Qaeda fighters and local tribesmen in neighboring South Waziristan.

The military subsequently took a softer approach to avoid alienating the fiercely independent tribesmen.

Pakistani officers draw parallels with U.S. tactics in Iraq, and say they did not want to make the same mistakes by risking escalating violence in their own tribal lands, where even young boys carry guns.

2

From The Nation

**60 US troops search shops in Miranshah **

From Haji Mujtaba

MIRANSHAH (North Waziristan Agency) – Around 60 United States troops reportedly entered into Pakistani territory in Lowra Mandi area of Datakhel Tehsil on late Sunday evening and searched a number of shops in the area.
The eye-witnesses in Data Khel tehsil informed that the US troops, boarding on four vehicles suddenly entered into the Lawara Mandi Bazar and went for a search of the shops. Some of the shops were searched by the US troops in presence of their owners. However, they also broken away locks of the two shops and on completion of search they left for their camps in Afghanistan territory.
Sources said that the military and paramilitary troops of Pakistan Army who were camping on a distance of around 100 meters from Lowara Mandi Bazar were fully aware of the entrance of the US troops and searching of shops by them. But Pakistani troops remained silent and the US troops continued their search in the bazar till 9 p.m, sources added. :mad:
Later some unknown people fired rockets and missiles on military camps situated some two kilometers inside Afghanistan. However, no casualty report received to ascertain the losses inflicted due to these attacks. Sources said, the US and Afghan troops bombed the suspected places after the attack and the retaliatory fire by the US troops was continued till Monday morning.
Meanwhile, thousands of US and Afghan troops have started assembling near border area with North Waziristan Agency. The purpose of troops positioning, source said is aimed to launch operation and to establish permanent posts in the area.
The Afghan troops are of the view that as a result of recent operation in the border area of South Waziristan Agency, the suspected al-Qaeda men have sneaked into the border areas between Khost province and North Waziristan Agency and these suspected elements now creating problems for the US and Afghan forces, Afghan sources said

3

Pakistan ejects US troops from FATA

President Musharraf promised not to let US troops operate inside Pakistan, and it looks as though his forces are enforcing his word :k:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - American soldiers hunting al-Qaida and Taliban suspects in southeastern Afghanistan strayed into Pakistani territory and where turned back by Pakistani troops, a military official said Wednesday.

The U.S. soldiers, driving at least three military vehicles, entered Pakistan’s Lowara Mandi town on Sunday evening, in the South Waziristan tribal region, said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistan army.

For at least 20 minutes the U.S. troops searched some shops and a gas station for suspected terrorists in the town, located about 225 miles southwest of the capital Islamabad, Sultan said.

Pakistani troops arrived and told the Americans they were in Pakistan. The Americans apologized and returned to Afghanistan, he said.

``We feel it was an inadvertent crossing. It could not be termed hot pursuit,‘’ Sultan said.

The issue is a sensitive one. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is a staunch U.S. ally, but he has steadfastly refused to allow American soldiers to operate on his territory, fearing a backlash from religious conservatives. Pakistan has rejected American requests to gain the right of ``hot pursuit’’ to follow terror suspects over the border while engaged in combat.

Sultan said the U.S. troops came 200-300 yards inside Pakistan, across a border dotted by rugged mountains that is not clearly marked.

North Waziristan and adjoining South Waziristan area are located along Afghanistan’s southeastern provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Khost, where U.S. often carry out searches for Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.

4

:k:

5

the soldiers returned to Afghan soil immediately they were told that they were on the wrong side of the border. “The moment they were informed they went back. They stayed for no longer than 25 minutes,” Major-General Shaukat Sultan told Reuters.

6

These mysterious unnamed “sources” are directly contradicted by a named source from the BBC article. Perhaps Haji Mujtaba’s sources preferred to keep their identities hidden because they were uttering brazen lies with the intent of defaming the Pakistani government :slight_smile:

7

It is easy to wake up a man who is asleep. It is impossible to wake up those who are pretending to be asleep.

The “named source” is the ISPR spokesman :hehe:

I’m willing to open a standing wager that this type of incursion will happen again, more than once. Any takers?

BTW, the title of this thread says “Pakistan ejects” but it is more “Pak requests”.

8

Is Mr.Pazir Gul a liar as well? Does he have to collect the names of all his witnesses for his report to be true?

  1. We have a warning by the US commander

  2. We have prior warnngs by the US ambassador (however tainted) and the deputy defense secretary

  3. Airbase near border

  4. Incursion last week

  5. Now this

http://www.dawn.com/2004/05/05/top9.htm

Coalition troops search shops on Pakistan soil

By Pazir Gul

MIRAMSHAH, May 4: US-led coalition forces intruded into Pakistani territory and searched a number of shops before moving back into Afghanistan on Monday evening, official sources told Dawn.

**These sources said 60 coalition soldiers in four Humvee trucks intruded about two kilometres inside the Pakistani territory in Lwara Mandai Bazaar in Dattakhel tehsil, about 90 kilometres west of regional headquarters of North Waziristan tribal region at around 7.00pm.

Witnesses said the coalition forces searched shops in the bazaar and broke open the lock of a closed shop before moving back into the Paktika area of Afghanistan.

Members of Pakistani troops, regular as well as paramilitary forces deployed at the checkpoint barely 100 meters from the scene, did nothing to stop the intrusion or challenge the intruding forces, witnesses and officials confirmed. **

The officials said the incident had been brought into the notice of the government. The Inter Services Publication Relations (ISPR), the spokesman of the Pakistan Armed Forces, said it was collecting details of the incident. “The version given out by political authorities is fine,” Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told Dawn by phone from Islamabad.

This is the first deep intrusion by coalition forces following a threat, (later retracted) by US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad that the coalition forces could take action if Pakistan did not take action against Taliban and foreign militants hiding in tribal areas.

Witnesses from the across the border said that unidentified elements attacked a military base in Sandee, Khost, later that night with rockets and machineguns. The intensity of the attack was reported to be very high.

Witnesses said the American gunships and planes immediately came and heavily bombed the area and the bombing continued till 4.00am. They said the American and coalition forces had moved into the area a large number of troops to carry out search for foreign and local militants belonging to Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

9

Khilari, lets say its true that our troops saw US troops cross the border etc. Do you really expect them to engage them? Troops follow orders from higher command, and in all likelihood when directions came from higher ups the US troops were told to return back. Now whether the US troops knew that they had crossed into Pak territory knowingly, is another issue.

10

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by 5Abi: *
Khilari, lets say its true that our troops saw US troops cross the border etc. Do you really expect them to engage them? Troops follow orders from higher command, and in all likelihood when directions came from higher ups the US troops were told to return back. Now whether the US troops knew that they had crossed into Pak territory knowingly, is another issue.
[/QUOTE]

Good point. With US troops inside a civilian area, last thing you need to do is provoke a shooting match.

If Pakistani forces were present, they were probably waiting for orders from senior leadership on what specific actions to take. Confronting edgy US troops on his own initiative is not something any responsible junior officer would do

11

5Abi/MS,

I fully agree that junior officers would be irresponsible to engage friendly troops without clear orders. That is not my point at all.

What I'm saying is that, if you read the news and the official statemetns coming out of the region, it is impossible to bleieve that this was a "mistaken incursion." Last week too, US troops entered Pak territory. This time around they came in with aim to search specific places and left after they did that.

Why would the reporters from respected Pak apers make up stories? Once is a mistake, twice or more is a pattern.

12

What is the big deal?Aren't they going after the same knuckleheads the Paki army was blasting adn was getting spanked by just a couple of weeks ago?

13

Well let them come, they will fight for two weeks take heavy losses and then hand the messed up situation to some local General and run like hell. Sounds familiar? :)

14

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by mAd_ScIeNtIsT: *

Good point. With US troops inside a civilian area, last thing you need to do is provoke a shooting match.

If Pakistani forces were present, they were probably waiting for orders from senior leadership on what specific actions to take. Confronting edgy US troops on his own initiative is not something any responsible junior officer would do
[/QUOTE]

Do you honestly think that the Pakistani troops will open fire at the US troops? It might be possible, but very unlikely, just like a dog biting his own master, happens very rarely, and in most cases, the dog has already gone mad ;)

15

'The nation' and 'Nawa-e-waqt' are ridiculously anti-musharraf and that explains thier 'sources'.

16

Okay. How about DAWN? Do the Nizamis use mind control rays on the Haroons? :rolleyes:

How about Reuters then?

Did they get influenced as well? The whole world is lying and only pro-Musharraf people are telling the truth, right? :rolleyes:

17

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Khilaari: *
What I'm saying is that, if you read the news and the official statemetns coming out of the region, it is impossible to bleieve that this was a "mistaken incursion." Last week too, US troops entered Pak territory. This time around they came in with aim to search specific places and left after they did that.

Why would the reporters from respected Pak apers make up stories? Once is a mistake, twice or more is a pattern.
[/QUOTE]

Khilari, US troops including helicopter gunships have entered Pak territory in the past on more than a few occasions ever since the the war started. Most of the time they were on hot pursuit of these terrorists. But in all cases, they returned back. An ideal situation for US would be to go after these clowns from the Pakistani side, but that hasnt happend and we havent allowed them to use our territory for these types of incursions.

18

:k:…

19

The News

US troops again enter Pak territory

Deadline for foreigners registration extended

By Haji Muhammad Yaseen

MIRANSHAH: **US troops again violated Pakistan’s territorial jurisdiction in North Waziristan Agency on Friday evening.

Dozens of US commandos drove in four military vehicles from Afghanistan into Pakistan at about 7.45 pm. This was the second US violation within a week. Official sources told The News from the border area that dozens of US troops stayed for about 45 minutes in Lawara bazaar and returned to their bases in Afghanistan after Pakistani military officers convinced them about the actual position of the border. Reports said that two apache helicopters, four APCs and two fighter jets provided cover to the intruding soldiers.

Tribal sources in Lawara claimed that the US and Afghan forces were in possession of maps which clearly indicated the boundary between the two countries and that the intrusion was intentional, adding, it was aimed at “sending a message to the tribesmen”. The intrusion of US troops has caused unrest among the local people and has sent a wave of fear among Wazir tribesmen, locals said.**

AFP adds: A local administration official told this agency on condition of anonymity that the US soldiers came three kilometres inside Pakistan to probe a shooting incident on their side.

Pakistan on Wednesday lodged a protest with the United States after a previous incursion by US forces operating in the eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province.

However military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the US soldiers committed no border violation. “If it was a violation we would have lodged a protest,” he told AFP. :rolleyes:

“The US troops came only up to our border check post in three vehicles. They enquired from the FC soldiers about a firing incident in the area and went back,” he said.

“They did not enter our territory,” the spokesman said, adding that helicopters apparently circling the area also “did not come to our side”.

US authorities said the crossing occurred amid an ongoing operation by their forces on the Afghan side of the border as they hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

20

:crying: :mad3:
this is the sadest thing someone could ever do. watch foreigners enter your holy land and serach without permission. OHHHHHHHHH GOD HELP US PLZ!