At least 200 Taliban militants crossed into Chitral district of northwest Pakistan Saturday and attacked seven checkpoints, killing more than two dozen soldiers and police, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan has blamed Afghan and NATO forces for not doing enough to stop such cross-border attacks, while Afghan officials denied the militants came from their side of the border. Fighting was still ongoing Saturday afternoon, as Pakistan sent in reinforcements to drive the militants back across the border,
While the US and its two client states try to determine which side of the border the militants came from, little attention is paid to the lack recognition insurgents along the border region give to these national boundaries. All three states claiming dominion in Af-Pak and are perceived as illegitimate and threatening.
Very similar attacks took place earlier this summer, with similar disputes between the US, Afghan and Pakistani governments about whose fault it was. Pakistan blames the Afghan and NATO for not having strong enough control along the border region despite an occupation of well over 100,000. Afghanistan and NATO blame Pakistan for not taking enough of an interest in the border area peppered with sanctuaries for Afghan insurgents, preoccupied with border disputes along their border with India.
Meanwhile, the US continues to ignore their war’s role in fueling the Afghan insurgency and radicalizing the population in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, thus perpetuating these kinds of incidents.
Frankly speaking, south pakistan is part of Afghanistan, which was leased for 99 years, the lease was expired back in the mid 90s. So, for the afghans to cross to so called pakistan is Afghanistan.
Last week in Kandahar four US soldiers were killed over three days between Tuesday, the 23rd, and Thursday, the 25th of August. They were US combat dead number 61 through 64 in Afghanistan for August, 2011. The oldest soldier was only 25 the youngest 20. Two were killed by IED but two others died from small arms fire. That suggests an ambush and a rather sophisticated ambush of IED's and small arms fire that killed four US soldiers over three days. Kandahar was where success of the surge was to be measured and the results are clear, the Taliban are winning.