US poised to bomb Pakistan: Reports

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: US troops in Afghanistan are massing close to the border with Pakistan, poised to launch bombing raids on suspected terrorist bases in the North Waziristan region, British and Pakistani newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Nine American soldiers were killed and 15 wounded on Sunday in an attack by militants on a US base in Kunar province, close to the Pakistani border.

The Times said troops have been airlifted from the village of Lowara Mandi and that heavy artillery and armoured vehicles were also being moved into position for possible cross-border attacks on Pakistan.

The paper said US admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a visit to Islamabad at the weekend, had told Pakistan's top civil and military leadership that the US could take unilateral military action if Pakistan were unable to stop cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Mullen also said some elements within Pakistani security agencies could be helping insurgents operate from their bases in the border region; the paper quoted well-placed sources as saying.

The Times quoted an influential Pakistani army official as saying there were strong indications the US was ready to launch bombing raids against suspected Al-Qaida and Taliban camps inside Pakistan.

NATO denies Afghan troop buildup, urges Pakistan to act

The NATO military alliance denied that it was massing troops on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan but urged Islamabad to do more to stop Taliban militants taking refuge.

"There is not, nor is there going to be, an incursion of NATO troops into Pakistan. There is no planning for that, there is no mandate for that, and there is no troop movement in that direction," a spokesman said in Brussels on Wednesday.

Pakistani tribal elders raised the alarm on Tuesday over what they said was a build-up of hundreds of NATO-led troops on the Afghan side of the border.

It came as Islamabad was under growing pressure from the United States to curb cross-border attacks by Taliban militants, with the US military chief flying into Pakistan at the weekend for urgent talks.

Reports said some 300 NATO soldiers equipped with tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy weaponry had been moved very close to Lwara Mundi, a border village in North Waziristan.

"There is no unusual military activity in that region," said the NATO spokesman, James Appathurai.

While he insisted that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was not gathering at the border, he underlined that they did have permission to shoot into Pakistan if fired upon.

"They have the right to fire back if they are fired upon, and there should be no doubt that they do it," he said.