Video of Skirmish Along Border - Candace Rondeaux, Washington Post
The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan released video footage Thursday that apparently shows militants firing on Afghan troops from a mountain ridge near the country's northeast border with Pakistan, prompting a deadly skirmish that Pakistan has blamed for the deaths of 11 of its soldiers. A Taliban spokesman said 10 others also died in the military operation, which occurred late Tuesday evening just a few hundred feet inside Pakistan's troubled Mohmand tribal area and has threatened to further destabilize the increasingly fragile alliance between the United States and Pakistan. The footage of the incident, which was shot from above by an unmanned aerial vehicle, was issued as Pakistani government officials unleashed a torrent of criticism about the US military operation along Pakistan's porous border with Afghanistan.
US Releases Video of Pakistan Airstrike - Mike Nizza, New York Times
The United States military today confronted the sharpest criticism of an airstrike that left 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers dead on Tuesday night by releasing what it says is a video of the incident. (For background, see this article by Carlotta Gall and Eric Schmitt). Rather than it being a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act" - a charge from a Pakistani military officer that was later leavened by other officials - the Pentagon hoped the video would persuade the public that the American air attack was a legitimate act of self-defense. While it generally confirms aspects of both the American and the Taliban accounts of the border clash on Wednesday, the released video shows only part of the operation - the striking of three bombs, out of a total of about 12 that were used, officials said.
Air Strike in Pakistan 'Legitimate, Self-Defense' - John Kruzel, AFPS
Defense Department officials called a US air strike in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border "legitimate" and "self-defense," and said they are investigating the attack with Pakistani officials. "Every indication we have at this point is that the actions that were taken by US forces were legitimate, in that they were in self-defense after US forces operating on the border of Pakistan in Afghanistan territory came under attack from hostile forces," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said in a news conference today. "In self-defense, they called in an air strike, which took out those forces that were attacking them," he added.