The army said Thursday that four Pakistani civilians died when U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan fired across the border at associates of a man they consider the Taliban's most dangerous commander, the Pak.
The incident on Wednesday could add to concern in Pakistan that its cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terror has fanned Islamic militancy manifesting itself in a wave of suicide bombings.
A spokesman for American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan confirmed the crossborder fire and acknowledged that they notified Pakistani authorities only afterward.
Pakistan's army, which has received billions of dollars from Washington to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban on its side of the mountainous frontier, said the incident was an accident.
Spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said five artillery shells fired by coalition forces strayed into Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region. One shell hit a home in the village of Kangrai, killing two women and two children, Abbas said.
Pakistan lodged a "strong" protest with coalition forces over the incident but thought it was inadvertent, Abbas said.
"They were engaging militants, but five shells landed over here," he told The Associated Press.
However, a U.S. coalition spokesman in Afghanistan said later that the attack was intended.
Troops used "precision-guided munitions" to strike a compound about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) inside the Pakistani border, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman in Kabul.
"We received reliable intelligence indicating senior Haqqani Network members were in the compound at the time of the strike," he said, a reference to Siraj Haqqani, a prominent Afghan militant.
On Wednesday, a coalition statement accused Haqqani of organizing a suicide attack that killed two NATO soldiers and wounded dozens of civilians at an Afghan government office on March 3. It said Haqqani "has become the most dangerous Taliban leader in Afghanistan."
Belcher said troops had fired across the border in response to an "imminent threat" but provided no details. He said the Pakistani government was notified immediately after the strike.
Abbas was not immediately available to comment on the discrepancy between his account and that of the U.S. military. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq declined to comment and referred the matter to the army.
Pakistan has been a close U.S. ally ever since President Pervez Musharraf dropped support for the Taliban and joined the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Officials on both sides say military-to-military relations are excellent and their cooperation close. Musharraf has sought to convince skeptical Pakistanis that they are fighting to preserve their own country, not just for America's sake.
But with violence escalating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, many Pakistanis hope parties opposed to Musharraf who are set to form a new government will scale back military activities and seek dialogue with militant groups, whose influence has been growing.
Regular strikes by U.S.-led or NATO forces within Pakistani territory, particularly those which have caused civilian casualties, draw particular condemnation.
Some incidents may be due to the poor demarcation of the long, rugged border. In June last year, a rocket fired during a battle between U.S.-led NATO forces and insurgents in Afghanistan struck a home in North Waziristan, killing 10 civilians.
But there have also been several cases where unmanned U.S. drones have fired missiles at suspected militant hideouts in Pakistan's border regions, including a strike in January that killed a senior al-Qaida commander.
The mild condemnation from Pakistani authorities has led many analysts to believe that the drone strikes are carried out with Islamabad's tacit blessing.
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Associated Press Writer Alisa Tang contributed to this report from Kabul.
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