Suspected U.S. troops kill 20 in Pakistan attack

By Hafiz Wazir

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected U.S. commandos from Afghanistan killed 20 people, including women and children, in a pre-dawn raid inside Pakistan, officials said, an attack branded as an assault on the nation's sovereignty.

The attack is likely to spark uproar in Pakistan, where it will be seen as undermining sovereignty at a time when a new civilian government is struggling to assert authority in the turbulent nuclear-armed state.

"It is outrageous," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier province, said in a statement.

"This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," he said.

Security officials in the region said they suspected U.S. soldiers backed by helicopter gunships mounted the attack.

A spokeswoman for Afghanistan's NATO-led force said she had no information about the incident.

A spokesman for a separate U.S.-led coalition force declined to comment, referring questions to the U.S. Central Command.

The United States says al Qaeda and Taliban militants are based in sanctuaries in northwest Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border, where they orchestrate attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot violence in the West.