Airstrikes strain U.S.-Pakistan ties

ISLAMABAD - U.S. officials pressed their Pakistani counterparts Thursday to reopen a vital supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, as relations deteriorated after the fourth strike by coalition helicopters in a week killed three members of Pakistan's border force.

Pakistan closed the crossing to protest the strikes on its side of the border, leaving U.S. officials to use meetings and phone calls to try to soothe relations and get the route reopened. Both sides indicated that they might be able to resolve the dispute with a joint investigation.

But the border closing, and the exceptional series of strikes by piloted aircraft as opposed to drones, signaled a general increase in tensions between Pakistan and the United States, already uncomfortable allies that are pursuing competing interests in the Afghan war.

In a further escalation, at least 27 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan were attacked late Thursday in southern Pakistan. The attack took place on the edge of Shikarpur in Sindh Province. No one was believed to have been killed or wounded in the attack.

Demonstration of leverage

The border closing was a clear demonstration of the leverage Pakistan holds over the U.S. war effort. It coincided with a previously scheduled visit by the CIA director, Leon Panetta, who met Thursday with the Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, part of a stream of U.S. officials who have come to alternately cajole and coerce Pakistani cooperation.

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