US confirms attack

AMERICAN forces launched a raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a senior US military official said, in the first known US ground assault in Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven, reported a private TV channel on Thursday, quoting an American news agency.  The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross-border operations, said that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry protested saying US-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in the country's wild tribal belt. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent foreign missile strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist groups.

The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target. But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's No 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.