Sunday, May 09, 2004

Illegal incursion into Pakistan

US troops crossed into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan in recent days despite Pakistan expressly prohibiting such actions, but the Pentagon said on Wednesday the incursion was inadvertent.

In Islamabad, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official said his government had protested to the US a May 2 incursion by US troops into Pakistani territory to hunt suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban militants.

"I can confirm the incident did occur recently," said a US defense official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The bottom line is that it was inadvertent. ... And we respect the territorial integrity of Pakistan," the official said.
  Taipei Times article

Okay, I can certainly buy that there might be some mistake in uninhabited areas, but surely the army has the capability of knowing about villages, particularly ones where there are Pakistani forces close by.

US troops searched shops and a gasoline station in the village of Alwara Mandi in North Waziristan, one of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal regions, during a night operation, said Pakistani Major-General Shaukat Sultan.

Around 60 US troops drove into Alwara Mandi, which lies a few hundred meters from the frontier with Afghanistan and has a Pakistani forces picket close by, villagers said.


Not to mention it seems a little suspect that they went in "inadvertently" under cover of night and searched buildings.

If we weren't so often asked to give our military the benefit of the doubt and so often been rubed doing so (most recently in relation to Abu Ghraib prison), I might be less suspicious of the innocence claimed by the "US defense official in Washington".

We weren't illegally in Cambodia and Laos, either.

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