US-Pakistan relations at breaking point after air strike deaths

DEMONSTRATORS gathered in cities across Pakistan yesterday demanding an end to relations with the US, in protest at an air strike that killed 24 soldiers close to the Afghan border.

Thousands gathered outside the American consulate in the city of Karachi last night, shouting “Down with America” and accusing Nato of a deliberate attack on Pakistani troops.

Nato and American officials issued statements of regret as they tried to defuse an escalating diplomatic crisis.

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The cross-border raid has taken relations between Islamabad and Washington to the brink of collapse, threatening to destroy their alliance against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.

Yesterday, hundreds of Nato trucks and tankers were prevented from crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan in the first fall-out from the raid.

At the same time, mourners joined the military top brass as prayers were held for the dead soldiers in the north-western town of Peshawar.

Nato helicopters and fighter jets based in Afghanistan attacked two Pakistan military outposts in the tribal district of Mohmand early on Saturday morning, killing the soldiers in what Pakistan said was an unprovoked assault.

“This was a tragic unintended incident,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, adding that an investigation was under way. “We will determine what happened, and draw the right lessons.”

The facts are hotly disputed in a region with an undefined, unmarked border and where militants operate freely.

American helicopters have conducted multiple attacks in Pakistan while in “hot pursuit” of Taleban and Haqqani network militants, who use the country’s mountainous tribal areas as safe havens after launching cross-border raids.

However Afghan and Western officials in Kabul have tried to shift the blame with a series of unattributed briefings.

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An Afghan official told the Associated Press news agency that an operation against suspected Taleban training camps came under fire from the direction of the Pakistani border posts. Afghan troops then called in an air strike.

Whoever is to blame, the latest crisis could not have come at a worse time.

With US troops headed home from Afghanistan and increasing pressure for a negotiated peace, Pakistan’s goodwill is more important than ever. Yet on Saturday night a crisis meeting called by the prime minister announced it was reviewing all diplomatic, military and intelligence co-operation with the US.

Pakistani authorities have also closed their border crossings to Nato convoys in protest. The land routes carry almost 50 per cent of supplies to the forces in Afghanistan.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani military and political analyst, said the relationship might still be salvaged but American aggression made it more and more difficult for the country’s broadly pro-US leadership to justify staying close to Washington. “This is the gravest crisis for the relationship since 2001,” he said.

“The military and the civil government are the only ones making a case for relations with America, and now this happens, which will only strengthen those campaigning for an end to co-operation.”

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