Air strike damages trust in Pakistan-U.S. alliance
By Zeeshan Haider - Analysis
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States and Pakistan will have to work harder to stop their alliance from souring after an air attack by U.S.-led forces killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border post, analysts said on Thursday.
There have been sporadic breakdowns in co-ordination between forces on both sides of the Afghan border in the past, but Tuesday's attack by U.S.-led coalition forces had by far the deadliest consequences and could affect future cooperation.
"They may try to do some damage control, but I think the troops on both sides may not trust each other and cooperate," Rahimullah Yousafzai, a newspaper editor and expert on Afghan and tribal affairs said.
Eleven Pakistani Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers, including a major, were killed in the air strike in the Mohmand tribal region, which abuts Afghanistan's Kunar province.
The attack came amidst growing frustration among Pakistan's western allies over efforts by the new government to negotiate pacts to end militant violence on its side of the border.
NATO says such deals lead to more violence in Afghanistan as they provide opportunity to militants to orchestrate and launch cross-border attacks from their sanctuaries on Pakistani soil.
From a Pakistani perspective, peace talks at least provided a respite from a wave of suicide attacks which began in mid-2007.
Well over 1,000 people have been killed in militant-related violence in Pakistan since then.
While Pakistan is unlikely to weaken its cooperation with the United States in the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban, analysts say the Mohmand incident has intensified pressure on Pakistan's two-month-old civilian government to draw a line.
Previously the United States had a direct relationship with President Pervez Musharraf, the general who came to power in a coup in 1999 and became Washington's close ally in the war on terrorism after the al Qaeda attacks in 2001.
But the new government has asserted itself and U.S. diplomats and military commanders now have to deal with politicians who have to answer to the people, many of whom believe it is America's war, not theirs.
HARDENING OPPOSITION
Critics say the attack will harden opposition to drone aircraft missile attacks inside Pakistani territory which have become a feature of U.S. operations in the region.
"It will definitely have an impact on the relationship and cooperation," said Mahmood Shah, a former head of security for Pakistan's seven tribal regions on the Afghan border, known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
"There is a strong feeling among the people, the FC and army against such attacks," Shah said.
The Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force recruited from the Pashtun tribes in FATA. Aside from sharing kinship with militants drawn from the same tribes, the Frontier Corps soldiers are poorly paid and ill-equipped.
There are plenty of anecdotes about soldiers failing to intercept bands of militants moving across the border, usually told with scant regard for the thought those soldiers might be outgunned and doubt whether the effort is worth dying for.
Think-tanks in Washington have raised doubts about the resolve and questioned the loyalties of these troops, just as they often accuse members of Pakistani intelligence of playing a double game.
Soldiers on the front line bridle at suggestions Pakistan is tough fighting al Qaeda but soft when it comes to the Taliban.
"Do they understand the situation on the ground?" a stunned Pakistan Army Brigadier Ali Abbas asked Reuters last month in South Waziristan, where he'd lost several men in an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud's fighters.
Hundreds of Frontier Corps have been victims of gunbattles, roadside bombs, suicide attacks, kidnappings and beheadings.
More than 1,000 Pakistani soldiers have died fighting in FATA alone. The militants have killed many more outside the tribal region in their asymmetrical war against the state.
Yet, the Bush administration is meeting opposition in the Senate against its plan to spend $750 million in FATA in coming years, much of it earmarked for bolstering the Frontier Corps.
Pakistan summoned U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson to the foreign ministry on Wednesday to lodge a strong protest about this week's incident.
The U.S. embassy later issued a statement of regret that Pakistani soldiers had been killed, though the Pentagon defended the action of U.S. forces, saying initial indications pointed to a "legitimate strike" carried out in self-defense.
(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Jerry Norton)
Air strike damages trust in Pakistan-U.S. alliance | Special Coverage | Reuters
