2011 NATO attack in Pakistan
Afghanistan-Pakistan border dispute with Afghanistan on NATO's side
The 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan, also known as the Salala incident (Urdu: واقعہ سلالہ), was a border skirmish that occurred when United States-led NATO forces engaged Pakistani security forces at two Pakistani military checkpoints along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border on 26 November 2011, with both sides later claiming that the other had fired first.
Two NATO Apache helicopters, an AC-130 gunship and two F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets entered as little as 200 metres (660 ft) to up to 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) into the Pakistani border area of Salala (located in the Baizai subdivision of the Mohmand Agency in the then Federally Administered Tribal Areas) at 2 a.m. local time. They came from across the border in Afghanistan and opened or returned fire at two Pakistani border patrol checkpoints, killing 28 Pakistani soldiers and wounding 12 others. This attack resulted in deterioration of relations between Pakistan and the United States. The Pakistani public reacted with protests across the country and the government under Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani took measures adversely affecting the American exit strategy from Afghanistan, including the evacuation of Shamsi Airfield and closure of the NATO supply line in Pakistan. Pakistan also rejected a U.S. offer of compensation for the killing of its soldiers in the NATO attack.
On 3 July 2012, then-United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially apologized for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military in the 2011 attack. Subsequently, Pakistan restored the NATO supply routes.
Background and timeline
The attack
On 26 November 2011, US-led NATO forces opened fire on two Pakistani border checkpoints near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border.
The public source identifies “2011 NATO attack in Pakistan” as afghanistan-Pakistan border dispute with Afghanistan on NATO's side. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around NATO, attack and Pakistan.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q543279. Authority coordinates are 34.500, 71.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011 and 2012.
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