By AZHAR MASOOD | ARAB NEWS
Published: Oct 5, 2010 00:46 Updated: Oct 5, 2010 00:46
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strengthened its air defense with a view to preventing NATO forces from intruding into its territory from Afghanistan.
The strong US ally has installed anti-aircraft missiles in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, well-placed sources told Arab News here on Monday.
“Now no helicopter will be able to escape after entering into Pakistani territory,” the official sources said.
Meanwhile, NATO’s chief expressed regret on Monday for the deaths of Pakistani soldiers last week and said he hoped Pakistan’s border would reopen for NATO supplies to Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Angered by repeated attacks by NATO helicopters on militant targets within its borders, Pakistan blocked one of the supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan after a strike killed three Pakistani soldiers in the western Kurram region.
Analysts and Western officials said Pakistan’s closure of the border for a few days would not seriously impact the war effort in Afghanistan, but it would create political tension that Pakistan could exploit.
“I expressed my regret for the incident last week in which Pakistani soldiers lost their lives,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Brussels.
“I expressed my hope the border will be open for supplies as soon as possible.”
The apology came after gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks taking goods to Western forces in Afghanistan on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital, killing three guards.
Pakistani Taleban militants claimed responsibility.
Hours later, suspected militants attacked trawlers carrying supplies for NATO through the southwestern province of Baluchistan, killing one man, police said.
Late on Monday, two missiles from a suspected CIA drone struck a mosque in Mirali in North Waziristan, about 20 km east of the main town of Miranshah, intelligence officials said. Three people were killed.
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