Afghan NATO force fires into Pakistan

KABUL -- NATO launched a pair of artillery strikes across the border into Pakistan after attackers hiding there fired rockets into Afghanistan that killed three children, officials said yesterday.

The cross-border fighting could heighten diplomatic tension over Pakistan's inability to stop Islamic militants from operating from its territory -- and whether forces in Afghanistan have the right to strike back.

NATO said five rockets were fired at one of its bases in Khost province overnight. At least one hit a house in Kunday, a village that sits between two military bases, killing three children. Another hit a NATO base, wounding an Afghan man.

'SELF-DEFENCE'

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two of the slain children before relatives carried the three caskets, draped in colourful cloths, to a graveyard for burial yesterday morning.