NATO killings erode Pakistan appetite for peace

Afghanistan: Deadly NATO strikes have sapped Pakistan's appetite for helping the United States carve out a settlement in Afghanistan, experts say, with army chiefs under pressure from their furious junior ranks. The killing of 24 soldiers in attacks on two Pakistani posts close to the Afghan border on Saturday has prompted fury in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, where there is little love for the alliance with Washington.

Pakistan's government says it will boycott an international conference on Afghanistan taking place in Germany on Monday, undermining attempts to stabilise the country after 2014 when foreign combat forces are due to leave.

The army, Pakistan's most powerful institution, summoned hand-picked journalists to denounce America and NATO's "deliberate act of aggression".

"Officers were very angry," said one person who attended. "They are also under pressure from the soldiers, mid-level officers and the families of the victims who tell them: 'Why do you stand with people who kill our soldiers?'" It is the second time in six months that army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani, considered a pragmatist and an ally in the United States, has faced the wrath of junior officers incensed over a US attack.

The army has already been weakened by the covert American raid on May 2 that killed Osama bin Laden near its top academy, humiliating the military and shocking a nation obsessed by apparent infringements of its sovereignty.

Yet Washington accuses elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence services of collaboration with the Taliban and other Islamist militants.

Retired lieutenant general Talat Masood said that generals may now be considering how to distance themselves from NATO and the United States. "They might withdraw from facilitating the process (bringing militants to eventual peace talks in Afghanistan). I'm not so sure they will continue to cooperate in the same manner," said Masood, today a leading defence analyst.

"Because of so much anti-American feeling against the war they are finding it very difficult to maintain this relationship. Middle and younger officers are very angry and very upset." Pakistan believes it has paid too high a price for signing up to the US-led "war on terror" in the dark days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Homegrown Taliban are bombing cities and waging a bitter insurgency in the northwest. The government says 35,000 people have died in 10 years, including more than 3,000 soldiers killed in battles with Islamist militants.

However, the United States wants Pakistan to do more to stop Taliban infiltrating Afghanistan and take out militant havens on its soil.

AFP