Pakistan’s military has ordered its forces to open fire if US troops launch another raid across the Afghan border, an army spokesman said Tuesday. The orders mark a dangerous escalation in tension between Washington and a key ally in its seven-year war on terror.

Pakistani protests are hardening in the wake of a September 3 incident in which helicopters ferried US commandos into Pakistan for a highly unusual ground attack in a militant stronghold.

The country’s civilian leaders, who have taken a tough line against Islamic militants since forcing US ally Pervez Musharraf to resign as president last month, have insisted that Pakistan must resolve the spat with Washington through diplomatic channels.

However, army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told Associated Press that, after the cross-border assault in the South Waziristan tribal region, the military told its field commanders to take action to prevent any similar raids.

“The orders are clear,” Abbas said in an interview. “In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire.”

US military commanders have accused Islamabad of doing too little to prevent the Taliban and other militant groups from recruiting, training and resupplying in Pakistan’s wild tribal belt.

Pakistan acknowledges the presence of al-Qaida fugitives ¿ the area is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri - and the difficulties it faces in preventing militants from seeping through the mountainous border into Afghanistan.

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