President Asif Ali Zardari has denied that American and Pakistani forces exchanged fire along the Pak-Afghan border this week, even as the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged that the two sides engaged in a brief firefight.
Zardari told The Washinton Post in an interview the other day that Pakistani border forces shot warning flares Thursday at two US helicopters that he believes inadvertently crossed into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan. He said there was no gunfire exchanged between the two sides. "We fired flares at them," he said.
Zardari spoke at about the time that Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington that Pakistani forces fired on two US helicopters supporting a ground unit on Thursday and that American troops responded with small-arms fire.
"There was a cross-border fire incident yesterday," Mullen said, corroborating reports from US and Nato military officials. He urged both sides not to "overreact to the hair-trigger tension we are all feeling. Now, more than ever, is a time for teamwork, for calm."
One day after blasting the United States for violating Pakistani territory in a speech before the UN General Assembly, Zardari had sought to defuse tensions between the two countries and present Pakistan to the American public as a reliable ally in the US-led fight against terrorism.
Zardari played down the significance of American incursions into Pakistan in recent weeks, referring to a September 3 operation that led Pakistan to accuse US commandos of killing 20 people in a South Waziristan village as a "one-off" incident. He praised President Bush's leadership in the fight against terrorism. "Obviously, the world is a safer place," he said. "It could have been worse."
At the same time, Zardari warned that "the axis of evil is growing." He cited last Saturday's massive bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which killed more than 50 people, and pressed the Bush administration to step up intelligence co-operation with Pakistan to help confront militants. "God has given us the opportunity to do the job," he said. "I think Pakistan has the right credentials and I have the right credentials and strength to face them. I've been through a tough life and that tough life has prepared me to become even tougher."
Pakistan's fledgling democratic government received a show of support on Friday at the United Nations from a coalition of countries - called the Friends of Pakistan and led by the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates - that pledged economic aid and political support to help the government in the struggle against terrorism.
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