Pakistan will retaliate for Afghan cross-border attack
The Pakistan foreign ministry summoned the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad Monday, June 16, to hear a formal protest and a warning that his government would retaliate if Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack. Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country would brook no interference in its affairs.
In his strongest language yet, President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday, June 15, that Afghanistan would send troops into Pakistan to kill insurgents.
Karzai spoke two days after Taliban fighters freed 1,000 inmates from Kandahar’s main jail, including 400 of their members.
He warned that by seeking out Taliban leaders wherever they were, his troops would be exercising self defense against militants who cross in from Pakistan to kill Afghans and coalition troops. He specifically named Baitullah Mehsud, “who should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house.” Karzai was referring to the Taliban leader based in the Pakistani tribal territory of South Waziristan. “Mullah Omer can expect the sa
same,” he added.
The Pakistani prime minister responded to AP: “We want a stable Afghanistan. It is in our interest. How can we go to destabilize our brotherly country?”
debkafile: The hundreds of jailed Taliban fighters now at large will inject new life into the insurgent campaign. According to Afghan officials, 15 of the escapees have been killed and 20 recaptured.
Our sources reported June 13: In a striking switch in tactics, Afghanistan’s Taliban have chalked up a series of successful operations against US-led coalition forces climaxing Friday night, June 13, in a blow-out which emptied the main jail of the southern Afghanistan town of Kandahar.
Thirty men on motorbikes and two suicide bombers used a bomb truck and rockets to blow out the Sarposa jail’s entrance, killing all nine officers at the police post.
debkafile‘s counter-terror sources report each bike had two riders, one driving and the second firing anti-tank RPGs and automatic guns. This style of attack is practiced by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards elite squads and the Lebanese Hizballah.
This was the most brazen Taliban operation since its attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a public ceremony on April 27 – also in Kandahar.
The Afghan insurgents’ change of tactics was clearly apparent in the last ten days. Instead of head-on engagements with US, British and other NATO troops, the Taliban have switched to suicide attacks, often using bomb cars and roadside bombs, which aim for maximum fatalities when used against military convoys and foot patrols. These tactics are commonly employed by al Qaeda in Iraq.
The attacks came a day after US defense secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan had exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.