LITTLE ROCK — DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Helicopter-borne American special operations forces attacked al-Qaida militants in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan early Wednesday in the first publicly acknowledged case of U.S. forces conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil, American officials said.
Until now, allied forces in Afghanistan have occasionally carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks in the border region of Pakistan against militants hiding there, and American forces in "hot pursuit" of militants have had some latitude to chase them across the border.
But the commando raid by the American forces signaledwhat top American officials said could be the opening salvo in a much broader campaign by special operations forces against the Taliban and al-Qaida inside Pakistan, a secret plan that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been advocating for months within President Bush's war council.
"What you're seeing is perhaps a stepping up of activity against militants in sanctuaries in the tribal areas that pose a direct threat to United States forces and Afghan forces inAfghanistan," said one senior American official, who had been briefed on the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the mission's political sensitivity. "There's potential to see more."
While most American soldiers in Afghanistan operate under a NATO chain of command, the special operations forces who carried out this attack answer only to American commanders.
The Bush administration has criticized Pakistan in recent months for not doing enough to curb attacks by the Taliban and al-Qaida, which keep bases inside the Pakistani tribal region and cross the border to attack American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The action by the American forces Wednesday in the border village appeared to be an effort to stanch the raids by al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants.
Conflicting reports emerged about civilian casualties in the operation. American officials said one child was killed in the strike; a Pakistani military spokesman said the American troops opened fire on villagers, killing seven people.
After the attack, Pakistan lodged a "strong protest" with the American government and reserved the right of "self-defense and retaliation," said the Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.
Many details of Wednesday's attack remain unclear, including how many commandos and helicopters were involved, and whether the strike was planned against the al-Qaida targets or precipitated by militant attacks against allied forces in Afghanistan.
American military spokesmen at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., and the Pentagon declined to comment on the strike. The spokesmen did not deny that the attack had occurred.
Three other senior American officials provided some details of the attack, but only on the condition of anonymity because of thesecrecy surrounding any aspect of the Joint Special Operations Command, whose "special mission units" carry out the military's most secret counterterrorism missions.
The governor of North-West Frontier province, Owais Ahmed Ghani, said the helicopter attack occurred about 3 a.m. and killed 20 people.
Local residents said most of the dead were women and children, but this could not be confirmed.
One American official said that at least one child was killed and several women who died in the attack were helping the al-Qaida fighters.
The governor, the most powerful civilian leader in the province condemned the attacks and called for retaliation by Pakistan.
The province abuts the South Waziristan region, where the strike reportedly took place.
A senior Pakistani official called the commando raid a "cowboy action" and said it had failed to capture or kill any senior al-Qaida or Taliban leaders.
"If they had gotten anyone big, they would be bragging about it," he said.
According to an earlier description of the military action Wednesday given by a Taliban commander and local residents, the latest attack was aimed at three houses in the village of Jalal Khel, also known locally as Moosa Nika, in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan, near a known stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaida and less than a mile from the border with Afghanistan.
The Taliban commander, known by the nickname Commander Malang, said the attack took place close to a Pakistanimilitary position on the border and killed 15 people. But the Pakistani military took no action, he said.
According to the Taliban commander, three helicopters flew into the Pakistani side of the border and one of them, carrying soldiers, landed.
Soldiers who came out of the helicopter opened fire on people in the village, he said, while the other two helicopters hovered overhead.
The commander, who is based in the town of Wana, said he was not at the scene. He received the description by radio, he said.
The soldiers "killed innocent people" in the village adjacent to a security post of the Pakistani Frontier Corps. There was no immediate way to independently confirm the account of the Taliban leader.
Abbas, the Pakistani military spokesman, said the American commandos spilling from the helicopter opened fire on villagers, killing seven people.
Meanwhile, shots were fired at the motorcade of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday afternoon near the capital, Islamabad, but Gilani was not in the motorcade at the time, Pakistani officials said.
Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the banned militant organization Tahrik-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility and pledged more attacks in retaliation for army operations in tribal areas and the Swat Valley along the border with Afghanistan.
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Mazzetti and Salman Masood of The New York Times and by Paul Alexander, Pamela Hess, Pauline Jelinek, Matthew Lee, Ishtiaq Mahsud, Munir Ahmad, Stephen Graham and Fisnik Abrashi of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1, 2 on 09/04/2008