US confirms raid inside Pakistan

US-led forces launched a raid inside Pakistan on Wednesday, a senior US military official said, in the first known US ground assault in Pakistan tribal region against a suspected Taliban hideout.

Pakistani government has condemned the attack, saying it killed at least 20 people including women and children.

The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred on Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn’t provide any other details.

Foreign Ministry of Pakistan protested saying US-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in South Waziristan. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent foreign missile strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist groups.

US military and civilian officials declined to respond directly to Pakistan’s complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target of any raid like that reported on Wednesday would have to be extremely important to risk an almost assured “big backlash” from Pakistan.

“You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of Pakistani co-operation,” the official said.

Pakistani officials said they were lodging strong protests with the US government and its military representative in Islamabad about Wednesday’s raid in the South Waziristan area, a notorious hot bed of militant activity.

The Foreign Ministry called the strike “a gross violation of Pakistan’s territory,” saying it could “undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish.”