US commandos attack Pakistan sovereignty

The Governor expressed heartfelt sympathies with the bereaved families and assured that the Government would try its best to protect its citizens from such cowardly attacks in the days to come.
Agencies add: US commandos from Afghanistan killed 20 people, including women and children, in a pre-dawn raid inside Pakistan, officials said, an attack branded as an assault on the nation's sovereignty.
Foreign channels say the US occasionally launches airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan's border region, sometimes in coordination with the Pakistani army. But a raid by ground troops would be rare.
Locals say three helicopter gunships dropped international troops in the Musa Nikeh area of South Waziristan, located on the border with Afghanistan, overnight.
They say the soldiers killed more than a dozen people with gunfire and bombs, including women and children.
"Troops came in helicopters and carried out action in three houses," Gul Nawaz, a shopkeeper of Angor Adda village, said.
Witnesses told the BBC that troops entered the house of a local tribesman, opened fire and then lobbed a bomb in the house. They said at least nine bodies had been recovered from the debris. The witnesses said the family was not known for links with militants.
An official in South Waziristan tribal district, Mowaz Khan, said that helicopters dropped troops into the border village of Jalal Khel, and that the troops shot civilians who had left their homes upon hearing the choppers.
Pakistan has protested in the past about missile strikes on its territory, aimed at militant targets in tribal areas.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said he had no word of such a raid, and that the force does not have a mandate to attack outside the borders of Afghanistan unless its troops come under fire from within Pakistan.
Raids with helicopters or aircraft are extremely rare but American media recently reported that the US was planning direct attacks on Pakistani soil. A recent series of missile strikes targeting rebels in Pakistan has been attributed to US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the ISPR has said that ISAF troops landed two helicopters at a village near Angoor Adda in South Waziristan Agency in the wee hours on Wednesday and as per reports received so far, killed seven innocent civilians.
The spokesman strongly condemned this completely unprovoked act of killing and regretted the loss of precious lives. He blamed the coalition forces for this violent act and said, "such acts of aggression do not serve the common cause of fighting terrorism and militancy in the area."
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, said it had 'no information to give' about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops there denied any involvement. The US embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.
Residents said the dead were buried Wednesday.
A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said foreign forces are generally prohibited from mounting cross-border attacks into Pakistan. The spokesman, who only gave his name as Sgt. Yates, said NATO forces occasionally employ artillery or aerial missiles to target insurgents who attack coalition troops from Pakistani territory, but the rules of engagement are very carefully proscribed. "Our area of operations stops at the border. We don't go over the border period," Yates said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and NWFP Governor have condemned the attack.
Gilani said that no external forces could be allowed to launch an offensive on Pakistan's territory, as Pakistan is fully capable to counter militancy and terrorism within its borders.  
NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has condemned the attack and termed it as outrageous and rank violation of international norm.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon declined comment Wednesday on Pakistani charges that at least 20 people were killed in a cross-border raid by Afghan-based international forces.
"I don't have anything for you on those reports," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, refusing further comment.
A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said he had no word of such a raid, and that the force does not have a mandate to attack outside the borders of Afghanistan unless its troops come under fire from within Pakistan.