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Pakistan's military chief has criticized U.S. cross-border raids from Afghanistan, saying his country's sovereignty will be defended and warning that the assaults could stoke militancy.
In an unusually strong public statement Wednesday, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said that a raid last week into Pakistan's South Waziristan region killed innocent civilians and could backfire on the "anti-terror" allies.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not comment directly on Kayani's remarks. But he said the U.S. military is working closely with the Pakistanis in regard to the border region.
"We have a shared common interest with respect to terrorism and terrorist activities," Whitman said. "Pakistan recognizes the challenges that they have, and the United States is committed to helping allies counter terrorism."
But Kayani said such operations were covered by no agreement between Pakistan and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and risked stoking militancy in a region which Washington regards as an intolerably safe haven for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
"Falling for short term gains while ignoring our long term interest is not the right way forward," Kayani said, according to the statement released through the military's media wing.
"To succeed, the coalition would be required to display strategic patience and help the other side the way they want it, rather than adopting a unilateral approach."
The Pakistan government already hauled in the U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to lodge a strong protest over a highly unusual raid by helicopter-borne grounds troops into South Waziristan last week which killed about 15 people.
U.S. officials have confirmed that American troops carried out the operation, but provided no details. The objective and results of the mission remain unclear.
Together with a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan's border zone, the raid indicates that Washington is getting more aggressive against militant targets beyond Afghanistan's frontier, despite the political fallout in Pakistan, a key U.S. ally.
A U.S. missile strike Monday in the North Waziristan tribal region destroyed a seminary and houses associated with a veteran Taliban commander and killed 20 people, including some women and children as well as four foreign fighters, officials said.
PHOTO CAPTION
Pakistani protesters burn U.S. flag and an effigy of U.S. President George Bush to condemn strikes in Pakistani tribal areas along Afghanistan border, Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008 in Multan, Pakistan.
AP
