“Not everyone is outraged by the NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers,” I wrote at Focal Points yesterday.
In other words, Pakistani insurgents got NATO, with its helicopters and fighters, to do its work for it and attack Pakistani military forces, as well as sow yet more discord between Pakistan and the United States.
Others celebrated the attacks too. At the Guardian, Saeed Shah and Jon Boone write that Afghans who in Kunar — the incident occurred on its border with Mohmand, Pakistan — “said they were delighted by the strike against the bases, saying they believed Taliban fighters were being harboured by the Pakistani army.”
Though
Pakistan says there were no militants operating on its side. … Coalition and Afghan troops believe they received fire from insurgents operating from close to the Pakistani post, which is located 300 metres into Pakistani territory. A senior Afghan official told the Guardian that a combined Afghan-Nato squad had received incoming fire from ‘the so-called Pakistani post”, prompting them to call for air support. “The most important point here is that they were receiving fire from the direction of that post.” … Afghan and coalition officials have accused Pakistan repeatedly in the past of failing to act to stop Taliban militants using its territory.
We’ll give the last word to Qari Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Kunar tribal leader, who said “The people of Kunar are happy. We have been telling the Americans for a long time that the Pakistanis are bringing the Taliban to our villages.”