By Xinhua,
Beijing : NATO forces struck back with two artillery attacks across the border into Pakistan after attackers hiding there fired a barrage of rockets into Afghanistan that killed three children, officials said Sunday.
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.”
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.
NATO reported that another overnight barrage of rockets aimed at a base in Khost — this time from inside Afghanistan — killed another civilian. It responded with an airstrike as well as artillery fire, it said.