Attack helicopters supporting International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops on the Afghan-Pakistani border reportedly fired upon a Pakistani Frontier Corps position Sept. 30, killing three paramilitary Frontier Corps troops and wounding three others. There appear to have been at least two incidents of ISAF attack helicopters engaging targets in Pakistan. The ISAF forces were operating in the Dand Patan district of Afghanistan’s Paktia province. ISAF has claimed that its troops were responding to mortar fire and remained on the Afghan side of the border, and it believes that at least one of the two places engaged by close air support could have been on the Afghan side of the border. According to a well-placed STRATFOR source in Pakistan, the Pakistani army’s General Headquarters considers this the fourth, and most offensive, cross-border incident in less than a week. Pakistan closed the border crossing over the Khyber Pass at Torkham in response to the Sept. 30 incident, at least temporarily blocking a critical supply route for ISAF troops.
