NATO In Afghanistan Fires Two Artillery Strikes Into Pakistan

In retaliation, NATO fired two separate artillery strikes across the border into Pakistan yesterday. Taliban forces in Pakistan had started the exchange by firing rockets into Afghanistan and in those attacks, three Afghan children were killed. Let's take a look at the details from the article at Breitbart:

NATO said five rockets were fired at one of its bases in Khost province overnight. At least one hit a house in Kunday, a small village that sits between two military bases, killing the three children. Another hit a NATO base, wounding an Afghan man, the alliance said
NATO said its forces responded "in self-defense" to the attack "with artillery fire on the launch site located about 300 meters (yards) inside Pakistan."

Now, this really could open up some new avenues for NATO in their operations on the border and inside of Pakistan. We have well documented the number of predator drone operations inside of Pakistan and we had the incident two weeks ago of NATO forces following retreating Taliban attackers back into Pakistan - so if the Taliban being this artillery type of barrage from inside Pakistan, I think it is pretty clear that NATO isn't going to think twice.

And let's face it, the new government of Pakistan is in NO position to handle an aggressive NATO - that new government is well aware of the risks they are taking in trying the peace agreements with the Taliban. This whole border back and forth could really end up opening the door wide as a convoy of M1A1's and Bradleys into Pakistan and if that happens, the Taliban (and al Qaeda, for that matter) are in for some very deep shit.

NATO launches artillery twice across Afghan border

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - NATO launched a pair of artillery strikes across the border into Pakistan after attackers hiding there fired a barrage of rockets into Afghanistan that killed three children, officials said Sunday.
The cross-border fighting could heighten diplomatic tension over Pakistan's inability to stop Islamic militants from operating from its territory—and whether forces in Afghanistan have the right to strike back.
NATO said five rockets were fired at one of its bases in Khost province overnight. At least one hit a house in Kunday, a small village that sits between two military bases, killing the three children. Another hit a NATO base, wounding an Afghan man, the alliance said.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two of the slain children before relatives carried the three caskets, draped in colorful cloths, to a graveyard for burial Sunday morning.
NATO said its forces responded "in self-defense" to the attack "with artillery fire on the launch site located about 300 meters (yards) inside Pakistan."
In an earlier attack Saturday afternoon, three rounds of "indirect fire"—which often refers to mortar or rocket attacks—landed near a NATO outpost in neighboring Paktika province, the alliance said. Three more landed in an Afghan army compound. No casualties were reported.
NATO said those rounds also came from inside Pakistan and responded with artillery fire.
Pakistan's military was notified immediately after each of the attacks, it said.
Afghan and U.S. officials blame surging violence in Afghanistan in part on efforts by the new Pakistani government to make peace with militants on its side of the mountainous frontier.