Pakistan protests to NATO over air strike

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan says it has protested to NATO over an air strike that it says killed 11 of its soldiers in a base on the Afghan border.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's office said he conveyed the protest to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer during a conference on Afghan reconstruction in Paris.

A ministry statement released late Thursday said Qureshi described the strike as `unprovoked and senseless' and a `blatant and wilful negation of the sacrifices Pakistan has made in the war against terrorism.'

The ministry said that de Hoop Scheffer expressed regret.

U.S. officials say coalition forces in Afghanistan bombed militants in the same area Tuesday night and are investigating whether any Pakistanis were hit.

• 

  This image taken from U.S. military surveillance video shows an explosion during a skirmish near a Pakistani border post.

• 

  Supporters of Jamiat Tulba-e-Islam, a Pakistani Islamic student group, chant slogans during a protest rally to condemn Tuesday's deadly airstike by U.S.-led coalition forces, Thursday, June 12, 2008, in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AP / Muhammad Sajjad)