Islamabad, Aug 12: Pakistan has protested to Washington over a fatal attack on its troops by US forces along its volatile border with Afghanistan and will raise the deaths today in a meeting with afghan and US military officials. A tripartite commission of Pakistani, Afghan and United States officials formed to discuss the porous, ill-defined frontier and the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives will meet later in Kabul. "Whatever happens at the border comes up for discussion," Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and one was injured early yesterday when US military planes, called in by ground troops patrolling the border in southeast Afghanistan's Paktika province, opened fire on what were believed to be attackers fleeing towards the border.

The US military said its ground troops had been fired on during their patrol and the assailants fled towards the Pakistani border.

A spokesman for the US military's central command said it was unclear whether the Pakistanis were killed in the air attack or in exchanges of fire on the ground between US forces and the fleeing assailants.

"We don't know if it was the result of the close air support or if it was in a firefight between the bad guys that were originally identified and the coalition forces," said Commander Dan Gage.

The deaths were the first of Pakistani soldiers under US fire in the 20-month old war on terror, in which Pakistan and the US are critical allies.
Bureau Report