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Kabul/Islamabad: Nato-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan on Saturday blamed militants for a mortar attack two nights earlier that wounded Pakistani soldiers and Afghan police on either side of the border and led to a Pakistani protest.
"Insurgents simultaneously fired at targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the evening of July 10," said a statement from the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) headquarters in Kabul.
Isaf said it had reports four Afghan police and eight Pakistanis were wounded in the two-way attack, and added it suspected the insurgents' aim was "to spark a border incident".
The clash occurred on the border near the Pakistani village of Angor Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region, a known sanctuary for Al Qaida and Taliban militants.
Angor Adda lies across the border from Bermal, a village near a US base at Shikin in Afghanistan's Paktika province.
Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the United States over the mortar fire from Afghanistan.
Increased tension
The incident comes at a time of increased tension between the neighbours, with both complaining that violence in their own country was fuelled by the situation in the other.
Afghanistan's foreign minister has said that main factors contributing to a deterioration of Afghan security was a de facto truce in tribal areas beyond the border, a clear reference to Pakistan.
The new Pakistani government led by the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto began talks with Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, based in the remote tribal region, South Waziristan, through tribal elders after it came to power in March.
Mehsud suspended talks last month after security forces launched a sweep in a tribal region against Islamist militants threatening the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
The militants had unleashed a wave of attacks across Pakistan over the past year, prompting the authorities to negotiate peace with them to end the violence.
Pakistani tribesmen have reported stepped-up patrols by pilotless US drones over the border areas. The drones have struck several times in northwest Pakistan this year, killing dozens of suspected militants.
Last month, Pakistan announced its outrage when eleven of its border soldiers were killed in a US air strike as US forces battled Taliban militants.
Days later, Afghan President Hamid Karazi, increasingly frustrated with Taliban attacks into Afghanistan, threatened to send troops into Pakistan to fight the insurgents.
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