US soldier killed, tensions mount between Afghanistan and Pakistan

About 1,000 Afghans shouting "Death to Pakistan" demonstrated in front of Pakistan's embassy in Kabul on May 16, blaming the neighboring country for some of the bloodiest border clashes in years. Many of the demonstrators were from the eastern province of Paktia, where fighting between Afghan and Pakistani troops killed at least 13 Afghan border guards and civilians so far this week. The demonstrators carried banners and shouted "Death to the ISI! Death to Musharraf," a reference to Pakistan's intelligence agency and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Tensions have been running high between Afghanistan and Pakistan over controlling their 1,510-mile border, and stemming the flow of Taliban and al-Qaida militants who stage attacks inside Afghanistan. Afghan officials said this week's border clashes began when Pakistani soldiers entered Afghan territory. Pakistan said Afghan soldiers started the clashes by firing on border posts. Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said: "This was unprovoked and without any reason." On the Afghan side, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi accused Pakistani forces of crossing more than a mile into Afghanistan's Paktia province. "Border police tried to stop them, and the Pakistani army started firing heavy weapons toward the Afghan forces," he said. On May 14, unidentified gunmen killed a US soldier and a Pakistani soldier after a meeting in a Pakistani border region between officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the NATO peacekeeping force. Several NATO troops were wounded. Pakistan said that one of its troops also died in the clash. The meeting was meant to cool tensions over the border fighting and was convened after two days of skirmishes across the border. Gen. Azimi claimed that a Pakistani army officer jumped up and shot at US troops during the heated negotiations. "The meeting became tense and one of the Pakistani officers stood up and opened fire on the American and Afghan delegates," Gen. Azimi told reporters in Kabul. "The Americans and Afghan soldiers returned fire and killed some Pakistani soldiers." Pakistan denied Gen. Azimi's version of events, saying that those at the meeting had come under fire from unknown "miscreants"–the term Islamabad uses for militants–after it had ended. NATO confirmed that there had been an incident with casualties and that it was investigating. The incident and the conflicting versions of what happened underline the diplomatic sensitivities involved in Islamabad–a key US ally since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks–explaining how a US soldier came to die on its soil. Rahmattullah Rahmad, the governor of the Afghan province of Paktia, offered a slightly different explanation. He said that he and a number of US and Afghan troops were flown to the border by helicopter. After discussions with their Pakistani counterparts they were returning to the helicopters when they were fired upon by a Pakistani soldier, he said. Others suggested the assailant was disguised as a Pakistani soldier. Pakistan announced that it would launch a high-level inquiry into the shooting.