Nato forces in Afghanistan hit targets inside Pakistan with artillery and attack helicopters after coming under rocket fire from across the border, the alliance said today.
Tension is high along the border with a sharp rise in attacks in eastern Afghanistan coming from inside Pakistan that Afghan and Nato officials blame on de-facto ceasefires between the Pakistani military and militants in its lawless tribal belt.
Troops from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) "received multiple rocket attacks from militants inside Pakistan," the alliance said in a statement. "The troops identified a (compound) as the point of origin of the attacks and responded in self-defence with a combination of fire from attack helicopters and artillery into Pakistan."
Nine Afghan soldiers were wounded by the rocket attacks and ISAF responded immediately, an ISAF spokesman said. ISAF and the Pakistani army "coordinated their operation closely from the outset. The Pakistani military agreed to assist and search the area if the border firing continued," the statement said.
Despite cooperation and open lines of communication between army commanders on both sides of the border, Afghan leaders have blamed Pakistani agents for a string of attacks.
These have included a suicide bomb on the Kabul Indian Embassy last week that killed 58 people and an April assassination bid on President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan rejects the accusations and says the Afghan government is trying to deflect criticism of its own failure to stem the rising tide of Taliban violence.
Earlier today, it was revealed that US troops have pulled out of a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan three days after Taliban militants tried to overrun the base and killed nine US soldiers.
Nato played down the significance of the withdrawal, but Taliban militants are sure to claim victory in driving foreign forces out of the wooded valley, close to the Pakistani border.
Taliban militants briefly breached the incomplete defences of the newly established base in the Wanat district of Kunar province on Sunday and hours of fierce fighting ensued that killed nine US soldiers and many more insurgents. It was the biggest single loss of life for US forces in Afghanistan since 2005.
Afghan soldiers killed seven militants in clashes in the same area yesterday.
The assault on the base came less than two weeks after US coalition aircraft carried out airstrikes close by that Afghan officials said killed about 15 civilians.
Provincial officials said foreign airstrikes killed nine civilians from one family in western Farah province yesterday.
The district governor confirmed the incident and said four women, four girls and an eight-year-old boy were killed in the bombing.
The issue of civilian casualties is undermining support for international forces' continued presence in the country.
Reuters