Pakistan and NATO Trade Fire Near Afghan Border

By SALMAN MASOOD and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: May 17, 2011


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani soldiers exchanged fire with two NATO helicopters that crossed into Pakistan’s airspace from Afghanistan early Tuesday, the Pakistani Army said, as United States senators increased calls in Washington to suspend or put conditions on billions of dollars in American aid to Pakistan.

The firefight, in which Pakistan said two of its soldiers were wounded, was the latest episode in a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the United States and Pakistan after the Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

That Bin Laden was discovered at a compound not far from the capital has heightened American distrust of Pakistan, while the raid inflamed Pakistani sensitivities over sovereignty.

Since then, the Obama administration and its allies in Congress have scrambled to keep tensions from spinning out of control and provoking Pakistan to shut down transit routes into Afghanistan that supply United States troops there.

Those tensions were laid bare on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as Democrats and Republicans voiced anger and bewilderment at providing $3 billion a year in aid to Pakistan, only to have that nation’s leaders criticize the United States for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty during the raid on Bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, a small city about 75 miles by road from the capital that is home to a major military academy.

“Americans are getting tired of it, as far as shoveling money in there to people who just flat don’t like us,” Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, said at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing to review Pakistan policy.

The committee’s chairman, John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, fresh off the plane from a 24-hour visit to Islamabad to meet with senior Pakistani leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief of staff, reported on his efforts to smooth ties, including an agreement to return to the United States the tail of an American helicopter damaged in the raid.

But many senators were not in a conciliatory mood. Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, complained that Pakistan was playing a “double game” by accepting American aid and fighting terrorists that threatened Pakistani government targets, but also supporting proxy forces in Afghanistan that killed American troops. “They are both a fireman and arsonist in this regional ongoing conflagration,” he said.

Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said it was time for Congress to put conditions on the military and economic aid, doling out assistance only if Pakistan met certain benchmarks in combating militants. “Most of us are wanting to call time out on aid until we can ascertain what is in our best interest,” he said.

Separately, five Senate Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein of California, chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday urging them to re-evaluate security aid to Pakistan.

Despite the anger on both sides, the Americans would like to maintain Pakistani cooperation as they try to wind down the war in Afghanistan, and Pakistan would like to keep aid flowing from the United States, which has amounted to more than $20 billion in the past decade.

When asked at Tuesday’s hearing about the impact of suspending aid to Pakistan, Gen. James L. Jones, President Obama’s former national security adviser, warned, “I would counsel against what might be a very tempting thing to do, but it might have long-term consequences that we would then have to deal with.”

American officials fear the exchange of fire on Tuesday will provide yet another irritant for both sides. NATO officials could not immediately confirm whether the helicopters had indeed entered Pakistan’s airspace, but said they were looking into the episode, which took place at Admi Kot Post in the North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan.

An American military official said the Pakistanis were injured by a rock slide, not gunfire.

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Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 18, 2011, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Pakistanis Exchange Fire With NATO Helicopters..

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/world/asia/18pakistan.html?emc=eta1