‘Pakistan fire may have prompted Nato strike’
People offer funeral prayers of Saturday's Nato attack victims in Peshawar.—AP
WASHINGTON: Fire from a Pakistani military outpost into Afghanistan prompted the Nato cross-border air strikes that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, a report said Sunday, citing Afghan and Western officials.
The Wall Street Journal, citing three unnamed Afghan officials and one Western official, said the attack —which has prompted fury in Islamabad —was called in to shield Nato and Afghan forces targeting Taliban fighters.
The fire came from remote outposts in the Mohmand region.
“There was firing coming from the position against Afghan army soldiers who requested support and this is what happened,” an Afghan official in Kabul said on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the government in Kabul believes the fire came from the Pakistani military base —and not from insurgents in the area.
That version was corroborated by two Afghan officials working in the border zone.
One border police official said Pakistani officials were informed of the Nato operation ahead of time.
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