NATO troops in gunfight at Pakistan border meeting

KABUL, May 14 (Reuters) A NATO soldier was killed and four wounded in an ambush by ''unknown assailants'' while they were returning to the Afghan side of the border after meeting Pakistani counterparts, a NATO statement said today.

''One ISAF service member was killed and four ISAF service members wounded when they were ambushed by unknown assailants near Teri Mangel, Pakistan, after leaving a border meeting,'' the statement said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The NATO statement appeared to support Pakistan's version of the incident, and contradicted an Afghan defence ministry spokesman who had earlier accused a Pakistani officer of opening fire on Americans at the meeting, killing two and wounding two.

Major-General Waheed Arshad, Pakistan's military spokesman, said ''As the convoy (of US soldiers) was moving back, some miscreants fired. Three to four US soldiers and three to four Pakistani soldiers were injured.'' A senior Pakistani security official, however, gave another version of events.

''A man disguising himself as a Pakistani paramilitary soldier opened fire,'' the official told Reuters.

The NATO statement issued from Bagram Airfield did not disclose the nationalities of the ISAF casualties.

The soldiers were returning from a flag meeting called to end border skirmishes between Afghans and Pakistani troops following a clash yesterday that was the worst in decades between the neighbours.

''DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES'' The Afghan foreign ministry issued a strongly worded statement accusing Pakistani troops of invading Afghan soil, and said it went against the spirit of a meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Turkish capital of Ankara two weeks ago.

The ministry said Pakistan's actions were ''contrary to all international norms, good neighbourliness, and against Pakistan's commitments during the summit between the presidents of the two countries in Ankara''.

It said 13 Afghans had been killed, and 28 wounded in the clashes, and warned Pakistan that any similar action would ''entail dangerous consequences for the stability of the region''.

Pakistan said Afghan troops started ''unprovoked firing'' on border posts yesterday, and Pakistani paramilitary forces retaliated and killed up to seven Afghan troops.

Distrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan has grown as the Taliban insurgency flared with renewed strength over the past 18 months. Afghan officials complain Pakistan is not doing enough to help stop insurgents crossing the border.

Pakistan says the core of the insurgency lies within Afghanistan.

The border incidents came hard on the heels of a major success in operations against the Taliban, as NATO announced that US-led forces had killed Mullah Dadullah, the insurgent's top commander in southern Afghanistan, on Saturday.

The death of Dadullah, the one-legged fighter nicknamed Afghanistan's Al Zarqawi after the slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, was considered the biggest blow to the Taliban since the start of their insurgency after coalition troops overthrew their radical Islamic government in 2001.

Dadullah was the architect of suicide bombings, kidnappings, beheadings and a rise of violence, and while the Taliban searched for a new commander in the south, many Afghans were relieved by his death.

''Dadullah was very bad man and he was a cruel man. He beheaded many Afghans,'' said Bahadur, a 30-year-old man from Spin Boldak, a town near the border with Pakistan.

Meantime, the violence from the Taliban insurgency continued.

Near the western Afghan city of Herat today, a roadside bomb ripped through a convoy carrying Western troops as it passed over a bridge, witnesses said. Several soldiers were wounded.

REUTERS RS PM2226