Source: Associated Press
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

Hundreds of Afghans gathered in eastern Afghanistan Monday in support of President Hamid Karzai’s threat to send troops after Taliban militants inside Pakistan, officials said.

Ghami Mohammad Yar, spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, said hundreds of tribesmen, elders and clerics had gathered at the governor’s compound to express support for Karzai.

“We are ready to sacrifice, like before, for the protection of our homeland borders,” Yar said. Mohammad Akram Akhpelwak, Paktika’s governor, said gatherings of support were being held in three other areas of Paktika.

Karzai on Sunday threatened to send Afghan troops to fight notorious Taliban leaders inside Pakistan in an angry warning that he will no longer tolerate cross-border attacks.

The threat — the first time Karzai has said he would send forces into Pakistan — comes only days after a sophisticated Taliban assault on Kandahar’s prison freed 870 prisoners, including hundreds of militants from the Islamist movement.

Karzai has long pleaded with Pakistan and the international community to confront tribal area safe havens, and U.S. officials have increased their warnings in recent weeks that the sanctuaries in Pakistan must be dealt with.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Sadiq, said Monday his office would issue a formal response to Karzai, but that, “Naturally we think that he did not use his best judgment by making this statement.”

Sadiqul Farooq, spokesman for the second biggest party in Pakistan’s new coalition government, condemned Karzai’s comments.

“Pakistan as a sovereign state will not permit any Karzai to violate the international border,” said Farooq, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Last week, U.S. aircraft dropped bombs along the Afghan-Pakistan border, an incident the Pakistan army said killed 11 of its paramilitary forces. The exchange ratcheted up increasingly touchy relations among the U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Analysts said they doubt military action by Afghanistan is imminent, but Pakistan’s prime minister said the threat “will not be taken well.”

Karzai told a news conference that Afghanistan has the right to self defense, and because militants cross over from Pakistan “to come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same.”

Karzai also warned Pakistan-based Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Baitullah Mehsud that Afghan forces would target then on their home turf. Mehsud has been accused in last year’s assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said he would not comment. But another ISAF official said he thought Karzai’s comments should be seen as a reflection of frustration with militant safe havens but not as a sign an attack is imminent. He asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the topic publicly.

The U.S. has spent more than US$3 billion the last two years training and equipping the Afghan army, and Karzai’s comments raise the specter that a U.S.-trained Afghan military could be used to attack Pakistan. The ISAF official dismissed that idea.

A spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Pakistan’s Taliban movement, warned of an escalation in Taliban attacks against NATO and Afghan forces if Karzai sends forces across the border.

Spokesman Maulvi Umar also said the Afghan army would face defeat at the hands of thousands of tribal fighters.

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Tags: Afghans, hamid karzai, officials, Taliban militants, troops