We are not having any luck building a good relationship with Pakistan. On Saturday, November 25, a NATO air strike killed as many as 28 Pakistani soldiers and wounded 11. In retaliation Pakistan has stopped the NATO ground supply route that goes through Pakistan.
Via Reuters:
NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan relations deeper into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in nearly half of the alliance’s land shipments. It also said it would ask U.S. forces to quit an air base used for CIA drone strikes on militants.
The attack is the worst incident of its kind since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan confirmed that NATO aircraft had probably killed Pakistani soldiers in an area close to the Afghan-Pakistani border.
“Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties,” said General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Talk about an entangling alliance. We give Pakistan billions of dollars so that they will be our friend and so that we can use their land to supply our forces in Afghanistan. We find out that Pakistan might be giving assistance to the Taliban. They hide Osama Bin Laden from us, then we kill him and they get angry at us for violating their sovereignty. Now we have a significant friendly fire situation and Pakistan is blocking our supply routes in addition to threatening to cut ties with us. We have never had good relations with Pakistan, but I think we are just creating a new enemy.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said the killings were “an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty,” adding: “We will not let any harm come to Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity.”
The Foreign Office said it would take up the matter “in the strongest terms” with NATO and the United States, while the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, said steps would be taken to respond “to this irresponsible act.”
“A strong protest has been launched with NATO/ISAF in which it has been demanded that strong and urgent action be taken against those responsible for this aggression.”
…
Pakistan is a vital land route for nearly half of NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. Land shipments account for about two thirds of the alliance’s cargo shipments into Afghanistan.
Hours after the raid, NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar, officials said.
The border crossing at Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province was also closed, Frontier Corps officials said.
A meeting of the cabinet’s defense committee convened by Gilani “decided to close with immediate effect NATO/ISAF logistics supply lines,” according to a statement issued by Gilani’s office.
The committee decided to ask the United States to vacate, within 15 days, the Shamsi Air Base, a remote installation in Baluchistan used by U.S. forces for drone strikes which has long been at the center of a dispute between Islamabad and Washington.
The meeting also decided the government would “revisit and undertake a complete review of all programs, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence.”
Perhaps its time to lessen our footprint in the middle east and open up trade. Maybe we could make a friend or two and lower the body count. Here is the official International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) official statement/apology for the friendly fire insident. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this will help smooth things over.
[Image via Flickr/DVIDSHUB]