Pakistan-Afghan border closing continues a 3d day

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A vital border crossing remained closed to U.S. and NATO supply trucks for a third day Saturday, a sign that Islamabad's desire to avoid a domestic backlash over a NATO incursion that killed three Pakistani troops outweighs - for now - its desire to stay on good terms with America.

Two U.S. missile strikes that killed 16 people in a northwest Pakistani tribal region, meanwhile, showed that America has no intention of sidelining a tactic it considers highly successful, even if the strikes could add to tensions.

The closing of the Torkham border to NATO trucks has exposed the struggles and contradictions at the heart of the U.S.-Pakistan alliance against Islamist militancy.

Each side needs the other: The United States gives billions in military and other aid to Pakistan, and the United States and NATO use Pakistani roads to transport the majority of their nonlethal supplies to Afghanistan.

Although the U.S.-led coalition is busy tackling every insurgent group it can along the Pakistani-Afghan border before America's scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan starts in mid-2011, Pakistan has gone after only certain groups sheltered on its side - those it deems most dangerous to its government, not to Westerners in Afghanistan.

A recent surge in the CIA's drone-fired missile strikes in Pakistan along with NATO operations along the frontier suggests that Western forces are testing how far they can push Pakistan.

Tensions came to a head after helicopters from the military alliance were alleged to have crossed the border multiple times last weekend in pursuit of insurgents, killing dozens of militants with air strikes. Pakistan protested to NATO and threatened to stop helping the coalition convoys into Afghanistan. On Thursday, it made good on its threat to cut the supply line after two NATO helicopters killed three Pakistani paramilitary soldiers who fired warning shots at them.

On Saturday, about 150 trucks were backed up near the border crossing at Torkham, waiting for the post to reopen. The truck drivers said they were worried, as militants are known to attack the supply line fairly regularly.

"We are suffering and feeling fear," driver Hayat Zaman said.

The closure of the Torkham border crossing has coincided with attacks on NATO supply trucks elsewhere in the country.

Analysts said they expected the border to be closed for two or three more days at least. Pakistan would look like it was backing down if it reopened the border too quickly, but at the same time, it wouldn't risk its partnership with the United States by keeping the crossing closed for too long, they said.

"The whole thing is so political, they cannot quickly reopen," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a military analyst.

Siddiqa said the Pakistani army may also see this as a chance to nudge the United States more toward its thinking on how to deal with the range of militant groups that operate in its border regions - namely, that it's better for Islamabad to focus for now on fighting militants attacking Pakistanis rather than those attacking Western troops in Afghanistan.

Critics of Pakistan say it is trying to avoid going after certain Afghan-focused militant groups, such as the Haqqani network, because it wants to keep them as allies once the United States leaves the region. But Pakistani security officials have often intimated that they will go after such groups in due time.

"Americans are always behaving like a man in a hurry," Siddiqa said. "Pakistanis, on the other hand, they want to play it differently. There is a difference in perception."