Pakistan pulls out of liaison posts; US concerned

[December 06, 2011]  ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistan on Tuesday temporarily recalled some troops from border posts meant to coordinate activity with international forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Authorities want to discuss how to improve the process after NATO airstrikes last month killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, the military said.

The decision highlighted current problems with coordination because U.S. military officials seemed to think it was another retaliatory move by Pakistan for the NATO strikes. The officials feared it would hamper efforts to liaise with Pakistani forces and increase the risk something could go wrong again.

The troops were recalled Tuesday for "consultation" and should be back at their posts within the next few days, said a senior Pakistani military official. The official did not specify how many troops would be recalled or how many would be left at the border centers.

U.S. military officials said late Monday that Pakistan was pulling out of at least two of the three centers along the border. Both the U.S. and Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The U.S. and Pakistan have offered different accounts of what led to the NATO attacks against two army posts along the Afghan border before dawn on Nov. 26, but the deadly incident seems to have been caused in part by communication breakdowns.

The soldiers' deaths have plunged the already strained U.S.-Pakistan relations to an all-time low, threatening Washington's attempts to get Pakistan to cooperate on the Afghan war despite billions of dollars in American aid.

Pakistan retaliated immediately by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies, demanding the U.S. vacate an air base used by American drones and boycotting an international conference held Monday in Bonn, Germany, aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Pakistan wants to repair relations with the United States. But there is still simmering anger in the country.

NATO attacks have killed Pakistani troops at least three different times along the porous and poorly defined border since 2008, but the incident on Nov. 26 in the Mohmand tribal area was by far the most deadly.

U.S. officials have said the incident occurred when a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested air support after coming under fire. The U.S. checked with the Pakistan military to see if there were friendly troops in the area and were told there were not, they said.

Pakistan has said the coordinates given by the Americans were wrong -- an allegation denied by U.S. defense officials. Pakistani officials have also said the attack continued even after military authorities contacted one of the border coordination centers.

Gilani said Monday that negotiating new ties with the U.S. would ensure that the two countries "respected each other's red lines" regarding sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border.

"We really want to have good relations with the U.S. based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters," he said in the interview at his residence in the eastern city of Lahore.

Despite Gilani's gentler rhetoric, the gulf between the two nations remains wide. U.S. officials have said the airstrikes have been the most serious blow to a relationship that has been battered by a series of crises this year, including the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Pakistan was outraged because it wasn't told about the operation beforehand.

The Obama administration wants continued engagement even as Pakistan's refusal to attack sanctuaries used by Afghan insurgents along the border has fueled criticism in Congress the country is a duplicitous ally unworthy of American aid.

Many analysts believe Pakistan wants to preserve its historical ties with Afghan insurgents because they could be key allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

Pakistan has said its troops are stretched too thin battling Pakistani Taliban militants at war with the state. A gunfight between soldiers and Pakistani Taliban fighters in the Kurram tribal area Tuesday left two soldiers and 12 militants dead, said Wajid Khan, a local government administrator.

Even if Pakistan won't attack Afghan insurgents, U.S. officials hope Pakistan will cooperate in pushing them to participate in peace talks.

[Associated Press; By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and LOLITA BALDOR]

Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Chris Brummitt in Lahore, Pakistan, and Hussain Afzal in Parachinar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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