Pakistani, U.S. clash won't escalate: analysts

ISLAMABAD-Neither the United States nor its ally Pakistan will let a clash between their forces on the Afghan border escalate since both countries depend on each other for different reasons, analysts said on Friday.U.S. and Pakistani forces exchanged fire on the Afghan border on Thursday after Pakistani forces shot at two U.S. helicopters from a Pakistani border post, the latest in a string of incidents that has ratcheted up diplomatic tension between the allies.The Pakistani military said its soldiers fired warning shots after the helicopters intruded over Pakistani territory, but a Pentagon spokesman insisted the helicopters had not entered Pakistan. No one was hurt.Alarming as the sight of the nuclear-armed allies shooting at each other might be, Pakistani analysts said hostilities were unlikely to intensify although more such incidents were possible, with both sides driven by different compulsions."Don't expect Pakistan and the U.S. to go to war, that is not likely to happen," said political analyst, Hasan Askari Rizvi. "Pakistan needs the United States for economic reasons and the U.S. needs Pakistan for conducting its war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Both recognize the need, but both are also trying to maximize their gain by building pressure on the other."The United States and its allies are struggling in Afghanistan with an intensifying Taliban insurgency, which has raised doubts about the success of the West's seven-year involvement.U.S. officials say Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters use the ethnic Pashtun tribal regions along Pakistan's side of the border as an operating base to launch attacks inside Afghanistan, in Pakistan and to plot violence in the West.
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