Militants enter Pakistan in latest cross-border attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Hundreds of militants crossed from Afghanistan and attacked several border villages in Pakistan on Wednesday, triggering shootouts with local militias that killed at least five people, police said.

It was the latest in a spate of such cross-border attacks, which have raised tensions between Kabul and Islamabad and undermined efforts on both sides to crack down on al-Qaida and the Taliban. A similar attack on the Afghanistan side of the border Tuesday killed at least 12 border policemen, officials said.

The two nations have accused each other of not doing enough to stop militants from slipping across the porous border, and Afghanistan has also blamed Pakistan for firing hundreds of rockets into its territory in recent months that killed dozens of people.

Paramilitary troops and police were sent to the villages attacked Wednesday in Pakistan's Upper Dir district to help armed tribesmen there who were trying to fend off the insurgents, local police official Gul Fazal Khan said.

The militants torched two schools and a mosque in the village of Nusrat Dara, and destroyed a school in the adjoining village of Saro Kili, said Ghulam Mohammed, a top government official in Upper Dir. They used rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns along with assault rifles.

Security forces killed three militants and captured three others during the fighting, he said. Two members of a militia fighting the militants were killed and two others wounded, he said.

On Tuesday, at least 150 militants came from Pakistan and overran three border checkpoints in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Upper Dir, said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. At least 12 Afghan border policemen were killed, he said.

Pakistan has complained that militants coming from Afghan bases have killed at least 55 members of the security forces and tribal police over the last month. It has also blamed the U.S. for the recent attacks since many American forces pulled out of Kunar over the last year to focus on more populated areas.

Both Kabul and Washington have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militants from crossing into Afghanistan to stage attacks. Afghanistan has also complained that Pakistan has fired more than 750 rockets into eastern Afghanistan since May that have killed at least 40 people.

The Pakistan army denies it has intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but acknowledges that several rounds fired at militants conducting cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday to express concern about the recent cross-border attacks. He told Karzai that the Pakistan army was "exercising utmost restraint" despite the attacks, but the situation "needs to be defused quickly," according to a statement released by the prime minister's office.