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US cross-border raid massacres civilians in Pakistan
September 3, 2008: At least 20 civilians were killed when helicopter-borne American Special Operations forces attacked a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan early on September 3 in the first publicly acknowledged case of United States forces occupying Afghanistan conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil.
The US special forces were dropped from two choppers at 3am inside Pakistani village of Musa Neeke in South Waziristan Agency (SWA). They targeted the local population for half an hour, tribal and official sources told Pakistan's The News (Jang) from the border town of Angoor Adda.
"Although, warplanes, drones and gunship helicopters under the use of allied forces stationed in Afghanistan have time and again violated Pakistani airspace in the past and carried out attacks in the tribal areas, their ground forces never dared entering Pakistani territory even during the Musharraf regime, dubbed as the closest ally of the US in its war against terror," The News explained.
Women and children 'shot in the head'
Habib Khan Wazir, who lives in the area, told Associated Press he heard helicopters, then an exchange of fire.
"Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head," Wazir added.
The dead included women and children and all were civilians, he added.
"There was darkness at the time when the Americans came and killed our innocent people," Wazir said. "We would have not allowed them to go back alive if they had come to our village in daylight."
The residents of Musa Neeke village told The News that the soldiers forced their entry into three houses owned by the Wazir tribesmen - Faujan Wazir, Faiz Mohammad and Nazar Jan Wazir - at a small border village of Zawlolai. The soldiers then started indiscriminate firing with their automatic assault rifles at the sleeping inmates.
"According to the sources, the coalition soldiers shot dead nine family members of Faujan Wazir, including four women, two children and three men. The troops also killed another villager, Faiz Mohammad Wazir, his wife and two of his other family members.
"The soldiers later entered the house of another tribesman Nazar Jan in the same village and shot him dead along with his mother. Two of his family members were seriously injured in the firing.
"Some of the tribespeople killed in the pre-dawn attack were identified as Nazar Jan Jalalkhel, mother of Nazar Jan, Dilbar Jan Jalalkhel, Rahman, Noor Mohammad, Fazlur Rahman, sons of Faujan Khan, two other minor kids of Faujan, two women of Faujan family, Faiz Mohammad Tojekhel and son of Faiz Mohammad."
One American official admitted to the NYT that at least one child was killed, and that several women who died in the attack were helping the Qaeda fighters.
Tribesmen close road in protest
The News reported that tribesmen of Angoor Adda border town condemned what they termed the "massacre" of innocent villagers in their houses without any justification.
"All those killed were poor farmers and had nothing to do with the Taliban," claimed Jabbar Wazir, a resident of Musa Neeke village.
Also, he said there had been no incident of clash between militants and soldiers or attack on coalition troops inside Afghanistan in the past one week. 
Shopkeepers also closed Angoor Adda bazaar in protest and raised slogans against Pakistani rulers for their failure in protecting its citizens against foreign aggression. The protesters threatened they would leave their villages and migrate to other places if the Pakistani government did not ensure their protection against the foreign aggression.
They complained that the Pakistani security personnel deployed on the border town did not show any reaction to the crossing of the border by the coalition forces and carrying ground operation inside Pakistani territory.
Pakistan government protest
According to a New York Times report, the Pakistan government lodged a “strong protest” with the American government and reserved the right of “self-defense and retaliation,” said the Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas.
General Abbas added that the soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force, which is made up of NATO and American forces, had created “new problems” for the Pakistani soldiers based along the border.
By killing civilians, General Abbas said, there was now a great risk of an uprising by the tribesmen who supported the Pakistani soldiers in the border area. The tribesmen, who were opposed to the Taliban and supportive of the Pakistani forces, would now be extremely angry, he said.
The governor of North-West Frontier Province, Owais Ahmed Ghani, condemned the attacks and called for retaliation by Pakistan.
A statement from Pakistan's foreign ministry said the attack caused "immense loss of civilian life" and called it a "gross violation" of Pakistani territory.
A senior Pakistani official told the NYTthat the commando raid was a "cowboy action" and said it had failed to capture or kill any senior Qaeda or Taliban leaders.
"If they had gotten anyone big, they would be bragging about it," he told the NYT.
Secret US plan from more cross-border raids
"Until now, allied forces in Afghanistan have occasionally carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks in the border region of Pakistan against militants hiding there, and American forces in 'hot pursuit' of militants have had some latitude to chase them across the border.
"But the commando raid by the American forces signaled what top American officials said could be the opening salvo in a much broader campaign by Special Operations forces against the Taliban and Al Qaeda inside Pakistan, a secret plan that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has been advocating for months within President Bush’s war council."
“What you’re seeing is perhaps a stepping up of activity against militants in sanctuaries in the tribal areas that pose a direct threat to United States forces and Afghan forces in Afghanistan,” the NYT report quoted one senior American official, who had been briefed on the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the mission’s political sensitivity. “There’s potential to see more.”
The NYT report noted that while most American soldiers in Afghanistan operate under a NATO chain of command, the Special Operations forces who carried out this attack answer only to American commanders.
Source: The News(Jang), NYT, Associated Press