Strike

The Pakistani military is so angry over the U.S. airstrikes inside pakistan that it is threatening to postpone or cancel an American program to train a paramilitary force in counterinsurgency for combating Islamic militants, two Pakistani government officials said.

The U.S. alliance with Pakistan - born after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as an important vehicle for the fight against terrorism - now stands deeply scarred by the June 10 airstrikes, Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said. In fact, some Pakistani officials are accusing the United States of purposefully firing on their military, an accusation the Americans deny.

Pakistan-Rawalpindi city

"This is the first time the United States has deliberately targeted cooperating Pakistani forces," said Jehangir Karamat, a former chief of the Pakistani Army and a former ambassador to the United States. "There has been no statement by the United States that this was 'friendly fire' and that the intention was not to target Pakistani forces."

The Pakistanis continue to dispute key parts of the American account of the airstrikes, which killed 11 soldiers from the Frontier Corps, the very paramilitary force Washington has already begun spending $400 million to train.

The recriminations have exposed the underlying mistrust in the alliance, which has been held together in large part by the personal relationship between President Pervez Musharraf and President George W. Bush.

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