ISLAMABAD — The NATO air attacks that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers (originally thought to be 26) and injured 13 others in the wee hours of Saturday morning went on for nearly two hours and proceeded even after Pakistani commanders pleaded with coalition forces to cease fire, the army claimed on Monday in chargers that no doubt will erupt in further feelings of anger in Pakistan.
NATO describes the incident as "tragic and unintended" and has assured that a full investigation will be held. Unnamed Afghan officials have stated that a joint Afgan-NATO force on the Afghanistan side of the border received incoming shots from the direction of the Pakistani posts, thus calling the airstrikes.
U.S. and Pakistani ties had already been steadily on the decline even before the deadly attack and have dropped much lower since, which delivers a huge blow to hopes of the United States enlisting the aid of Islambad in negotiation an end to the ten-year-old Afgahnistan war.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said that Pakistan's troops at two border posts were the victims of an unprovoked attack. Stating that the attack lasted nearly two hours and that commanders had been in touch with NATO counterparts while the attacks were still ongoing, asking "they get this fire to cease, but somehow it continued."
The Pakistani army has stated previously that its troops retaliated "with all weapons available" to the attack.
The very mountainous, poorly-defined border has been a consistent tension point between the U.S. and Pakistan. NATO and Afghan forces are not allowed to cross over into Pakistan in pursuit of militants.
The strikes on Saturday morning have only added to a popular anger within Pakistan for the United States-led coalition in Afghanistan. Many in parliament, army, media, and general population have already believed that the NATO and U.S. have hostile feelings towards Pakistan and feel as though the Afghan Taliban are not the enemy.
In claiming that it was an unprovoked victim of NATO aggression, Pakistan's army is now strengthening these feelings.
For a weak and oft-criticized elected government in Pakistan, Saturday's air attacks may provide the rare opportunity to unite the nation and a brief relief from attack from rivals eyeing elections by 2013 or possibly sooner.
Pakistan has given the United States fifteen days to vacate an airbase which has served as a launchpad for drone strikes in Afghanistan.
American forces were told to leave the remote Shamsi airbase, secretly handed over to the U.S. just after September 11, 2001, following an emergency meeting of Pakistani top military and civilian leadership late on Saturday. As previously noted, Pakistan has also blocked supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.
The Shamsi airbase was heavily used for launching the Afghanistan war in late 2001, and has also served as the base for the United States drone program. Shamsi is located in the sparsely populated desert in the western Baluchistan province, and is highly controversial within Pakistan for its drone association, which Islambad has come out and officially condemned.
The decision of Pakistan's defence committee is an admission that Shamsi remain in American hands. The committee states that the government would "revisit and undertake a complete review of all programs, activities and cooperative arrangements" with the U.S., and led-forces in Afghanistan, "including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence."
Pakistan has held funerals for the 24 fallen soldiers killer by NATO forces. Meanwhile, thousands of Angry Pakistanis took to the streets Yesterday and burned an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama in protest over the NATO strike.
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