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.

However, It insists it is doing what it can and paying a heavyprice, pointing to its deployment of more than 1,00,000 troops in its increasingly restive northwest and a wave of suicide bombings across the country.

American officials have confirmed their forces carried out the September 3 raid near the town of Angoor Ada but have given few details of what happened.

Abbas said that Pakistan’s military had asked for an explanation but received only a “half-page” of “very vague” information that didn’t identify the intended target.

Pakistani officials have said the raid killed about 15 people, and Abbas said they all appeared to be civilians.

“Probably they (the US troops) meant to go into some other area, engage some other people,” he said. “As per our post-incident report, these were truck drivers, local traders and their families.”

How to reverse a surge in Taliban violence in Afghanistan has become a hot-button issue in the US presidential campaign and refocused attention on the porous border with Pakistan.