US-Pakistani skirmish points to threat of wider war

The clash underscores the high level of tension that exists between the two countries and their militaries under conditions where the Bush administration has declared Pakistan the third front in its purported war on terror and the US routinely mounts military strikes inside Pakistan.

Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistan militarys media relations section, reported that two US helicopters from the Afghanistan side crossed into Saidgai, Ghulam Khan Sector, North Waziristan. When the helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistan territory, our security forces fired anticipatory warning shots.

A Pakistani government spokesman Akram Shaheedi, meanwhile, reiterated previous official statements affirming Pakistans rights as a sovereign nation, including the right to self-defence. It has been Pakistans policy that we will not allow anyone to violate our sovereignty, and we will continue to defend our territorial sovereignty, said Shaheedi.

The Pentagon has denied that the helicopters crossed into Pakistan, saying they were well within Afghan territory. But unlike two previous occasions this month when Pakistani officials said they had prevented US forces from entering into Pakistan, the US military did concede that a clash between US and Pakistani forces had taken place.