Pakistan denies provoking NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday. The lethal cross-border attack has brought relations between the US and Pakistan, which have been extremely tense since the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, to a new low.

Analysts say quick diplomatic work is necessary to bring the relationship back on track. The two countries depend on each other too much, however, to allow the incident to cause long-term damage.

Washington has expressed condolences for Saturday’s attack and said it supports a full inquiry into the incident. Pakistan for its part has blocked NATO convoys from crossing into Afghanistan at the Torkham border and ordered a review of its alliance with the US. The blocked route is a vital lifeline to the 140,000 foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan.

The All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association said on Monday it would not resume fuel supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan unless Islamabad and the military received an apology for the cross-border attack.

Islamabad has also demanded that US personnel leave Shamsi Air Base in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, from which the CIA is thought to operate drone strikes, within 15 days.

Shrouded in confusion

It is not exactly clear what happened on Saturday night. Some media reports have cited Afghan and Western officials as saying the air raid was called to shield allied forces targeting Afghan forces.

An unnamed Western official told the Wall Street Journal that NATO and Afghan forces had been "fired upon from a Pakistani army base" and that the raid was defensive. Although NATO’s mandate stops at the Afghan border, troops can return fire in self-defense.

An Afghan official said Kabul also believed the fire had come from the base and not from insurgents in the area.

Speaking anonymously, an Afghan police commander explained that because of the rugged terrain in the mountainous area, Taliban, Afghan and Pakistani security forces have posts very close to each other, which confused matters more. However, he added, that NATO troops rarely opened fire unless they were attacked.

Pakistani troops have routinely been accused of doing little to prevent the Taliban from opening fire from Pakistani soil and they have also been accused of firing on US and Afghan positions in the past.

'Unprovoked aggression'

Pakistan for its part insists that the attack was "unprovoked." Major General Athar Abbas said on Monday that US and Afghan forces were "making up excuses" in a text message. "Where are their casualties?" he asked.

The Pakistani army also said that the raid had lasted for almost two hours and continued even after Pakistani commanders had asked the coalition forces to stop.

Hundreds of Pakistanis went out onto the streets on Sunday to protest against the raid. Some even burnt an effigy of US President Barack Obama.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar called her US counterpart Hillary Clinton and expressed "a deep sense of rage" as a joint funeral was held for the dead soldiers.

Khar also spoke with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle who expressed his solidarity with Pakistan and said he supported a full investigation into the attack.

Debate heats up in US

In the US, lawmakers vented their frustration with Pakistan on a Fox News talk show. Republican Senator John Kyi called on Islamabad to cooperate with the US if it wanted to retain billions of dollars’ worth of civilian aid.

Expressing his condolences, Democrat Senator Dick Durbin said US troops were caught in a "diplomatic morass between the incompetence and corruption in Afghanistan, and complicity in parts of Pakistan."

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, made it very clear how he perceived the dilemma: "While it is tempting for many people to say we ought to throw the Pakistanis over the side… as long as that country has nuclear weapons that could fall into the hands of radicals and be a threat worldwide, they have incredible leverage."

Analysts doubt the incident will cause long-lasting damage to US-Pakistan relations and said that this spat - the latest in a series of confrontations since Osama bin Laden was killed - would probably be resolved with the US insisting there would not be such incidents in the future and Pakistan resuming NATO supplies.

Author: Anne Thomas (Reuters, AFP, AP)
Editor: Grahame Lucas