Clear order for Pak army to repel US raids

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said Tuesday that "no incursion is to be tolerated".

"The orders are clear," Abbas said in an interview. "In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire."

The tensions heightened following several bloody incursions by the US ground troops into tribal belt as well as a string of missile strikes by CIA-operated drone aircraft.

Subsequently, the Pakistani Army were given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country and its Air force fighters carried out sorties in the tribal region for the first time after US missiles attacks killed dozens of civilians.

The renewed severe orders come a day after Pakistani troops were reported to have fired shots to stop US troops crossing into South Waziristan.

Earlier on Monday, there were reports that US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops attempted to cross into South Waziristan.

As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local sources said.

The development comes after US President George W. Bush approved US military raids on militants inside Pakistan without Islamabad's agreement. The Bush administration accuse Islamabad of doing too little to prevent the Taliban and other militant groups from recruiting, training and re-supplying in Pakistan's wild tribal belt.

US tactic to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistan has met with fierce opposition. This week Pakistani tribesmen, representing half a million people, vowed to join the Taliban if Washington did not stop cross-border attacks by its forces from Afghanistan.

The reaction also brought into the open the increasing mistrust between the Americans and the Pakistanis over how to handle the Taliban and al-Qaeda linked militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Political analysts say the renewed clear orders to confront US raids are certain to heighten tension between Washington and Islamabad.