Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, said on Friday that the country has lodged a formal protest with "allied forces" in neighboring Afghanistan over a suspected US missile strike on Wednesday.
"We confirm that the two missiles were fired from a drone which belongs to coalition forces deployed in Afghanistan," AFP quoted Abbas as saying. "We have conveyed our protest and waiting for response by the coalition forces," he added.
Abbas said that the missile attack destroyed a house in Damadola killing at least 14 people and added that it could not be confirmed whether any foreign militants were killed in the missile strike as local tribesmen sealed off the area after the attack.
However, the Pakistani military spokesman failed to say which of the two coalition forces in Afghanistan were responsible for the missile strike. Currently, there is a US-led coalition and a separate NATO coalition in Afghanistan, fighting Taliban militancy.
Pakistani government had down played the incident initially, but after the Islamic militants killed a Pakistani paramilitary soldier on Friday in revenge for the missile attack, it responded quickly by formally protesting against the missile strike.
The Pakistani government fears that the alleged missile attack might undermine the on-going peace negotiations between Pakistan's newly elected government and the Taliban militants.
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