Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday ordered the United States to vacate a controversial airbase within 15 days and closed NATO supply lines into Afghanistan in response to a
deadly cross-border NATO air strike.
The order refers to Shamsi, the remote desert outpost in southwest Pakistan reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes, which Pakistan previously told the United
States to leave in June.
Earlier today, at least 28 Pakistani soldiers were killed today when NATO helicopters and combat jets fired on two border posts in the country's northwest, prompting army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to direct his troops to prepare for "an effective response" even as authorities cut off all supplies for US forces in Afghanistan.
The attack, the worst single incident of its kind in one decade, looked set to plunge US-Pak relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis.
A major and a captain of the Pakistan Army were among those killed when NATO aircraft fired at the borders posts in Baizai area of Mohmand tribal region at 2 am.
Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills 28
Fifteen more personnel were wounded and the death toll could rise as some of the injured were in a serious condition, several officials said.
A military statement said the NATO aircraft "carried out unprovoked firing" on the border posts.
Pakistani troops "effectively responded immediately in self-defence to NATO/ISAF's aggression with all available weapons".
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 26, 2011, 23:43