Pakistan demanded an end to U.S. missile strikes against Islamic militants holed up in the rugged tribal areas along the country's border with Afghanistan, the latest sign of growing tension between the allies as both struggle to combat the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The U.S. has launched at least 16 airstrikes inside Pakistan since August, and Pakistani officials told U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson that "such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately," the foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

Ms. Patterson was summoned to the Foreign Ministry after a strike Monday by a U.S. pilotless drone killed as many as 20 people, including a low-level Taliban commander. The commander, Mohammed Omar, was believed to have been tied to attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, precisely the kind of activity that American officials have used to justify the airstrikes.

U.S. officials in Islamabad weren't available to comment after Wednesday's meeting.

The strikes are deeply resented in Pakistan, where many blame the escalation in air raids for a spate of suicide attacks that have shaken the country's major cities, such as the Sept. 20 truck bombing that gutted Islamabad's Marriott hotel.

Wednesday's statement looked to be aimed in part at mollifying those domestic critics who are pressing the new government of President Asif Ali Zardari to pull back from the alliance that his predecessor, former President Pervez Musharraf, forged with Washington in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.

But Pakistan's formal complaint over the airstrikes also reflects the increasingly divergent paths being taken by strategists in Washington and Islamabad as they seek to neutralize the threat posed by the militants.

Pakistan clearly prefers trying to reach an accommodation with the Taliban in Pakistan through talks, hoping it can undercut support for al Qaeda's foreign fighters and eventually drive them out.

Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution Oct. 23 that called for the Pakistani army to withdraw from the northwestern Bajur region, where 1,500 militants are reported to have been killed in a two-month army offensive, and for officials to open talks with militants who renounce violence.

The call for talks was repeated Tuesday after Pakistani representatives met their Afghan counterparts to discuss ways to end militant violence. Both sides said the Taliban should be part of the talks if they agree to lay down their weapons.

The Americans, too, are moving toward opening some sort of dialogue with moderate elements of the Taliban. But U.S. officials have been critical of earlier Pakistani truces with Islamic militants, saying the fighters used the time to regroup.

U.S. airstrikes by Predator drones have become a regular occurrence since mid-August, targeting everything from a Taliban-linked religious school to a militant arms depot.

American Special Operations forces on Sept. 3 also launched a ground raid into Pakistan's South Waziristan region, believed to be a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda members. The attack drew sharp protests from Pakistan, which said women and children were killed in the assault. Ambassador Patterson was last summoned to the Foreign Ministry following that raid.



Source: The Wall Street Journal