Pakistan opposition angered by US attacks

[FormerBondFan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/pakistan;_yl ... c8LYLzPukA

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 12, 11:29 AM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's main opposition party said Friday the country could pull out of the war on terror over stepped-up attacks by U.S. forces in the restive tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
ADVERTISEMENT

An aide to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued the threat hours after 12 people were killed in the latest in a flurry of suspected U.S. missile strikes into Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan's government and military have protested to Washington over the strikes. However, new President Asif Ali Zardari and other leaders have reiterated their commitment to fighting violent Islamic extremism and have not threatened to withdraw their cooperation.

Still Pakistani leaders are sensitive to public opinion in the country, which is hostile to U.S. policy in the region. And agitation on the issue by Sharif, perhaps the country's most popular politician, could make it hard for Islamabad to maintain the close alliance with Washington forged by Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf.

American officials have expressed increasing frustration at how Taliban and al-Qaida militants have established bases in Pakistan's border regions that provide support for the intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan.

President Bush secretly approved more aggressive cross-border operations in July, current and former American officials have told The Associated Press.

"We need at this time to make it clear to foreign countries that Pakistan will not tolerate such actions," said Ahsan Iqbal, a leader of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party. "If it continues, then Pakistan can consider pulling out completely from this war on terror."

Iqbal and another party leader called on the government to convene parliament urgently to debate how Pakistan can respond.

"The parliament must be convened on a one-point agenda, because the nation is under a threat of war," Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. "Irrespective of where the threat is, every inch of this country is sovereign. Every inch of this country is sacred."

Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses said about 12 people died in a pre-dawn strike in the North Waziristan region. They were not immediately identified.

Maj. Murad Khan, an army spokesman, said the latest missile strike occurred about four miles northeast of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Gul Zaman Wazir, a local resident, told the AP by phone that drone aircraft were heard before the attack.

"They kept on circling in the sky for about two hours," Wazir said. "Then we heard a big bang."

Wazir said he saw at least 12 bodies at a house that was hit, including three children. A large number of militants later sealed off the area, he said.

North Waziristan is part of a belt of tribally governed territory where Pakistan's government has little control. The frontier region is considered the most likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

Since Aug. 13, there have been at least seven reported missile strikes as well as the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. commandos that Pakistani officials claim killed 15 people, all civilians.

Both the U.S. military and the CIA operate unmanned drone aircraft armed with missiles of the type believed to have killed two senior al-Qaida commanders in Pakistani territory earlier this year.

Pakistani officials warn that such operations will fan anti-American sentiment and wreck efforts to win over moderate tribal leaders and bring economic development to the impoverished border region.

Authorities negotiated a peace deal with tribes in North Waziristan earlier this year. Similar efforts have failed or broken down in other parts of the northwest.

The army spokesman said on Friday that 32 militants and 2 soldiers had died in the previous 24 hours in the Bajur region. Iqbal Khattak, a local government official, put the total for the 24-hour period higher, saying about 60 militants have died.

Officials say hundreds of militants have died there in a weeks-long offensive into Bajur. An estimated 500,000 people have fled their homes. Officials acknowledge that civilians have been killed and villages badly damaged in the fighting.

___

Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Habib Khan in Khar and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.