U.S. and Afghan special operations troops attacked militants in Pakistan yesterday -- "the first publicly acknowledged case of United States forces conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil," according to the New York Times.
Officials in Islamabad are livid -- or making a show of being livid, at least. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq called the raid by helicopter-borne commandos a "gross violation of Pakistan's territory" and "a grave provocation." Dawn, the Pakistani paper, claims "20 people, most of them women and children, were killed" in the assault.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces, based in Pakistan, have been striking targets in Afghanistan for years. They've even been blamed for an attempted hit on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Until now, American forces have mostly responded with airstrikes and artillery, although "the elite SEAL Team 6 raided a suspected Al Qaeda compound at Damadola [Pakistan] in 2006," according to the Los Angeles Times. And U.S. troops "in 'hot pursuit' of militants have had some latitude to chase them across the border," the New York Times notes.
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