I'll invade Pakistan, warns Karzai

AFGHANISTAN'S president, Hamid Karzai, threatened to invade nuclear-power Pakistan yesterday, in an astonishing escalation in the diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Speaking just days after American forces clashed with Pakistani soldiers on the border, Mr Karzai warned Afghan troops could cross the Durrand line, which divides their volatile nations.

He said Afghan soldiers would be acting in "self-defence" if they crossed into Pakistan to hunt down Taleban militants. And he vowed to "avenge" the violence Taleban leaders had inflicted on his country, in the clearest signal yet that Afghan and international forces have lost patience with Pakistan's faltering efforts to deal with the insurgents on their side of the border.

The Taleban use the tribal areas along the Afghan border as a safe haven, to rest, recuperate and reorganise beyond the reach of Nato operations, and Islamabad has faced mounting international criticism for not doing enough to stop them.

Mr Karzai said: "Afghanistan has the right of self-defence. When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same."

Afghans are angry that Pakistan is negotiating with the Taleban, despite the insurgents' threats to continue a holy war against foreign forces inside Afghanistan. Security sources inside Afghanistan fear a peace deal on the Pakistani side will let the insurgents concentrate on attacking the Nato-led troops next-door.

Mr Karzai, who was speaking for the first time since returning from an international donors' conference in Paris, warned his forces would target Taleban leaders hiding in Pakistan.

He singled out Baitullah Mehsud, the self-proclaimed leader of the Pakistani Taleban, suspected of organising the assassination of Benazir Bhutto; and Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Afghan insurgents. He said: "Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house. And the other fellow, Mullah Omar of Pakistan, should know the same.

"This is a two-way road in this case, and Afghans are good at the two-way road journey. We will complete the journey and we will get them and we will defeat them. We will avenge all that they have done to Afghanistan for the past so many years."

His comments came while his government was still reeling from a spectacular Taleban jailbreak that saw up to 400 insurgents and 750 criminals set free. Militants, believed to have come from Pakistan, attacked the main jail in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, in a daring commando-style raid. A suicide bomber in a water tanker packed with almost two tonnes of homemade explosives blew down the front wall of the prison, while a second suicide bomber, on foot, tore a hole in the back of the compound.

Armed men then stormed through the rubble, shooting guards as they raced to free their fellow insurgents, while fire-teams outside bombarded the buildings with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine-gun fire.

Nato spy-planes were scrambled to try and track the convicts as they fled through the night, on Friday, to sanctuaries along the border. American forces involved in a round-up operation killed 15 insurgents yesterday, but local police admitted less than two-dozen inmates had been arrested.

Bodies from Afghan conflict flown back to UK as wounded commander returns for treatment

THE body of a Scottish teenager was one of five British soldiers killed in Afghanistan being flown home last night, the Ministry of Defence said.

They are due to arrive at RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire, at about 2pm today for a military repatriation ceremony. The men, all from 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, based at Colchester, in Essex, were killed in the past week.

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that a Scottish battalion commander shot in Afghanistan has become one of the highest-ranking British soldiers injured in the conflict.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Richmond, commanding officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg during fighting in Helmand Province.

Private David Murray, 19, who was born in Dumfries but raised in Carlisle, Nathan Cuthbertson, 19, and Daniel Gamble, 22, were blown up by a suicide bomber on Sunday, 8 June. And on Thursday, Lance Corporal James Bateman, 29, and Private Jeff Doherty, 20, were killed by Taleban fire.

Their deaths take the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since November 2001 to 102. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said dozens of servicemen and women had attended a "ramp ceremony" in Afghanistan before the coffins were loaded on to the plane.

"The padre said a few words, and it was a chance for the soldiers to pay their respects to their fallen comrades," said the spokesman.

Lt-Col Richmond, 41, was leading his troops on Thursday against the Taleban near the town of Musa Qala when he was hit.

The soldier, who had served in Northern Ireland and Iraq in 22 years with the army, has been flown to the UK for treatment at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. It is not known how serious the injury is.

Speaking in February when he left on tour, the commanding officer said: "The deployment will test us all. The environment we will operate in is austere and demanding and we are ready for it.

"The battalion look forward to supporting the Afghan government in its efforts to rid the country of the Taleban and improve the quality of life of its people."