Border clashes kill 10 Pakistan troops, military says

At least 10 Pakistani troops have died in fighting and an air strike on the Afghan border, Pakistani military officials said today. Eight civilians were also killed, Pakistani television reported. The clash broke out late last night after Pakistani tribesmen and security forces reportedly tried to stop Afghan security forces from setting up a mountaintop post in a disputed border region. Damagh Khan Mohmand, a local tribesman who witnessed the fighting, said it lasted for four hours. He said Afghan and foreign forces traded fire with both Pakistani tribesmen and troops. Reports suggested the air strike was by a US drone. It was not clear whether the tribesmen involved in the fighting were associated with pro-Taliban militants who are active in Pakistan's border regions. It was also unknown whether the foreign forces reported to be fighting alongside the Afghan troops were from Nato countries. Two aircraft bombed several locations, hitting two Frontier Corps paramilitary posts in the Mohmand tribal region, Khan Mohmand said. Ten Pakistani paramilitary troops died in the exchange of fire and in the air strike, a military official in north-western Pakistan said. A second military official said the air strike was from a drone launched from Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green, the top US military spokeswoman in Afghanistan, referred calls about the air strike to the US embassy in Pakistan, which declined comment. She said she had no details about possible clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces. Pakistani TV networks reported the incident but gave varying accounts of the death toll and the fighting, which took place in a far-flung border area known as Speena Sooka, or White Peak. State-run Pakistan Television said 18 people died - 10 troops and eight civilians. It said Afghan and foreign forces had tried to set up a military post and were resisted by tribesmen. A Nato air strike then struck a Pakistani military post, PTV said. Pakistan says it has deployed tens of thousands of troops to police its tribal regions, but Afghan and Nato officials say militants still use the lawless area as a staging post for attacks inside Afghanistan. The US has in the past used unmanned drones to attack suspected militants inside Pakistan, an ally in its war on terror. Pakistan says the attacks are a violation of its sovereignty.