U.S. seeking to restore military communications along Afghanistan-Pakistan border

The United States is attempting to re-establish military communications along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which was no longer "open" following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a senior U.S. commander said Thursday. "A year ago, it was common, and has been for some time, we would have radio communications cross-border between coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces who face each other across the border," Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Afghanistan. "About May of this past year, after the bin Laden raid, those routine communications just were not available in most cases," he said. "We had a difficult time arranging border flag meetings. We had a difficult time arranging communications back and forth." The remarks came as the U.S.-Pakistani relationship deteriorated since early May when the U.S. military killed bin Laden in an unilateral action in Pakistan, a move condemned by Islamabad as violation of its sovereignty. The relationship worsened recently after senior U.S. military officials publicly accused Pakistan's spy agency of having links with armed Afghan insurgents, including the Haqqani network. "There has been communications now. They're not at the regularity that at one time they were or I would like them to be," Scaparrotti said. "We're attempting to re-establish the communications along the border, particularly between units that are facing each other, Afghan and Pakistani," he said.