Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent
NATO said last night it had abandoned an Afghan outpost only two days after it was stormed by militants who killed nine US soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
News of the pull-out from the position in Wanat village in northeastern Kunar province came as hundreds of US and coalition troops massed along the nearby border with Pakistan yesterday, amid reports of an imminent attack against al-Qa'ida and Taliban bases in the area.
Afghan officials said the US troops withdrew from the Wanat outpost on Tuesday, two days after Taliban militants breached the position in one of the deadliest attack involving international forces since 2001.
NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the International Security Assistance Force would maintain patrols in the area, which Afghan officials said was now under the control of the Taliban.
On the border, thousands of tribal families, fearful that the arrival of the coalition forces could be the start of a full-scale assault on militants based inside Pakistani territory, were said by officials to be fleeing their homes.
Rounds of mortar fire from the Afghan side of the Durand Line frontier were reported to be hitting the Pakistani town of Angoor Adda, but they were not believed to be from the coalition force mobilising near the border.
While officials in Islamabad insisted they knew of no unusual coalition troop movements on the Afghan side of the border, other well-placed sources said a red alert had been issued to Pakistan army commanders in the area to repel cross-border incursions.
At the same time, published reports said the Pakistan air force had been ordered to attack any aircraft violating the country's airspace.
A senior military official was quoted as saying: "Responsible departments of national security have made it clear to the ISAF (the US-led coalition force in Afghanistan) that they will give a befitting response to any border and air violation."
The official added: "Pakistan will never allow foreign interference in our territory, or for our sovereignty to be violated. Such incidents are infuriating not only to the security forces but also the Pakistani people." However, a spokesman for coalition forces in Afghanistan insisted yesterday there was no question of troops violating the border and entering Pakistan. "Our mandate stops at the border," said Captain Mike Finney.
Reports of the troop build-up has caused fury among local tribal leaders.
Malik Mohammad Afzal Khan Darpakhel, a local leader in the militant-infested tribal area of North Waziristan, was quoted as saying: "We want to warn them that three million tribesmen will rise against them if they try to move in."
The deployment followed a fierce denunciation of Pakistan on Monday by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai who accused Islamabad and its top spy agency the ISI of being "the world's biggest producers of terrorism and extremism".
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry retaliated by accusing Kabul of creating "an artificial crisis to satisfy short-term political expediencies".
India, too, has rounded on Islamabad, accusing the ISI of responsibility for the suicide-bombing of its embassy in Kabul last week in which 58 people died and hundreds were wounded.
Western commanders say there has been a marked increase in cross-border infiltration in the past few months, fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan. NATO troops have clashed with Pakistani units along the South Waziristan border.
Intelligence sources, backed by accounts from tribesmen, said yesterday that hundreds of heavily armed coalition troops had deployed just across the border from the Pakistani village of Lwara Mundi in North Waziristan. The village is reported to be a hotbed of jihadi militant activity.
Haji Yaqub, a resident of the nearby border town of Ghulam Khan, told reporters: "They have started setting up bunkers very close to the border while helicopter gunships are continuously hovering over the border."
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