Pakistan: U.S. Planes Killed 11 Troops

Pakistan reacted angrily Wednesday to what it called an "unprovoked and cowardly" attack by U.S. aircraft that left 11 Pakistani soldiers dead.

CBS News' Farhan Bokhari reports Pakistan's military released a statement Wednesday claiming a Tuesday night airstrike by U.S. military planes hit a remote base along the border with Afghanistan, killing the Pakistani security forces.

A separate airstrike conducted by coalition forces killed 31 people in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said there was an airstrike Tuesday night during an incursion by insurgents into Afghanistan from Pakistan. Coalition forces responded to the attack, and during the battle there was at least one airstrike, the official said, noting that information on the incident was still very sketchy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Other U.S. defense officials referred calls to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, saying the subject was very sensitive. An official at the embassy said there was no comment on the matter, and told CBS News any further information would come from the Pentagon.

According to the statement from Pakistan, U.S. planes bombed a post manned by Pakistani soldiers in a location known as Gora Parai in the Mohmand agency. Mohmand lies along the border, just east of the Afhgan province of Kunar.

A spokesman for the ISPR - the Pakistani military's information outlet - said the security forces, "condemned this completely unprovoked and cowardly act on the (military) post and regretted the loss of precious lives of our soldiers."

The spokesman said, "a strong protest has been launched by the Pakistan Army and we reserve the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression."

Western defense officials warned the Pakistani military's statement reflected growing frustration among the country's military commanders over U.S. strikes on Pakistani soil, Bokhari reports.

In recent months, U.S. officials have privately shared their consternation over Pakistan's alleged failure to more effectively curb the flow of militants across the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

These fighters, according to U.S. officials, routinely regroup in Pakistan before returning to Afghanistan to fight Western troops.

Pakistani defense officials, however, accuse the U.S. of failing to share intelligence on the movement of terror suspects - thus making it harder for Pakistani forces to monitor and fight the militants.

A Western defense official based in Islamabad told Bokhari the ISPR's reference to reserving "the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression" raised the danger of Pakistani forces in the border area responding with force to any future U.S. strikes.

"There is a rise in the overall temperature," said the official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

In the Afghanistan airstrikes, which took place in the Paktika province, about 150 miles south along the border from the reported strike in Pakistan, an Afghan official said at least 31 people had been killed.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said most of the dead were foreign fighters, but Khalid Farooqi, a lawmaker from the province, said at least nine civilians were killed.

The U.S.-led coalition said earlier four civilians and "several" militants had been killed in clashes in northern Paktika province. Twelve militants were detained.

Farooqi said the operation apparently targeted militant commander Mullah Mohammad Nabi and fighters who served under him.

A coalition statement said troops in Paktika province had been targeting two militant leaders involved in setting up attacks with explosives and helping foreign fighters.

The troops were fired on and responded with air strikes and gunfire.

U.S. military spokesman Lt.-Col. Rumi Nielson-Green said the four civilians who died - three women and a boy - were all within the buildings the militants were firing from Tuesday.

She called it "tragic" that the civilians died but blamed the militants for putting them in harm's way.

Civilian casualties have been a problem for the U.S.-led coalition over the years, though fewer civilian deaths have been reported so far this year than in 2007.

Meanwhile, Pakistan denied and denounced a report from a U.S. think tank alleging that elements within the country's security and intelligence forces help insurgents fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

A statement from Pakistan's military called the U.S. Defense Department-funded RAND Corp. report a "smear campaign."

"The report is misleading, factually incorrect and based on propaganda to create doubts and suspicion in the minds of (the) target audience about Pakistan's role in supporting the coalition forces in Afghanistan," said the statement, released late Tuesday.

The RAND report, published Monday, warns of "crippling, long-term consequences" for the U.S. in Afghanistan if insurgent hideouts in Pakistan are not eliminated.

It said some active and former officials in Pakistan's intelligence service and the Frontier Corps - a paramilitary force - directly aided Taliban militants.