Foreign forces in Afghanistan killed four Pakistani civilians, including two children, when they fired across the border, a Pakistani military spokesman said Thursday. Up to 2,000 villagers protested against the strike that happened Tuesday night in Pakistan's North Waziristan border region where militants opposed to both the Afghan and Pakistani governments are based. “They fired five rounds which landed in our territory and in the process a house was destroyed resulting in the deaths of two women and two children,” said military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. Pakistan had lodged a “very strong” protest with international forces in Afghanistan over the attack on the house, which was about 2 km inside Pakistan, he said. A spokesman for Afghanistan's NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said he had no knowledge of any such incident. However, a spokesman for a separate US-led force said it did fire into Pakistan early Wednesday in response to a militant threat. “Coalition forces did use precision guided munitions in response to an imminent threat from the Haqqani network,” said spokesman Major Chris Belcher, referring to militants loyal to veteran commander Jalauddin Haqqani. Belcher said he had no “battle damage assessment”, meaning he had no information about casualties or damage. But he said the US-led force had “credible, reliable intelligence” of a militant threat that led to the strike about 1.5 km inside Pakistan. Pakistan is a major ally in the US-led campaign against terrorism and has been trying to stop militants infiltrating into Afghanistan from its remote border lands, including North Waziristan. But Pakistan's support for the US-led campaign is deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis, who accuse the government of doing the bidding of the United States. Pakistan does not officially allow US forces to enter or attack militants on Pakistani territory although pilotless US drones have been know to fire missiles at militants inside Pakistan. There have been two such attacks in recent weeks. But cross-border incidents invariably inflame anger and up to 2,000 people protested Thursday in the Bajaur tribal region, which is also on the Afghan border to the north of Waziristan, over the killing of the villagers. “It's all because of our weakness. They're killing our people but instead of taking strong action, we always try to please the US. It's a shame,” Haroon-ur-Rashid, the leader of a party, told the protesters. __
