Angoor Ada

Angoor Ada (also Angorada, literally: "Grape Base" in Pashto) is a village and a border crossing straddling the South Waziristan Agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Afghanistan's Paktika Province. It is one of the few easy passages across this mountainous border, and one of two between Paktika and Waziristan, the other passage being the Gumal River.

The Afghan village Shkin lies just to the west of Angoor Ada. The actual authoritative Durand Line international boundary, first demarcated in 1895, slices through the east side of the main bazaar area, placing most of the built up area legally in Afghanistan. However, the military forces and gates enforcing border control are several hundred meters west of the boundary and thus west of the main bazaar area, placing nearly all of the village's built-up area under the control of forces in Pakistan.

The population in the area consists of tribesmen that share the Taliban's Pashtun ethnicity^[1] and are said to be fiercely conservative^[2] and antagonistic towards Pakistani authorities who wield almost no control here, being limited in their movements to 100 yards on each side of the road. In 2003 it was reported that eight people had been gunned down in Angoor Ada, suspected of being US informants.^[1][2]

Angoor Ada in the War on Terror

In 2003 the hunt for Osama bin Laden was said by U.S. officials to be narrowed to a 40-square-mile (104 km²) section of South Waziristan, namely the area covering the towns Angoor Ada and Wana^[1].

The 2008 Angoor Ada raid

On September 3, 2008 a raid was conducted by a US military force on Angoor Ada in which 20 civilians, including at least 3 women and 4 children, were killed^[3]. This is not the first time Afghan based US troops cross the Afghan-Pakistani border in pursuit of enemy fighters, but was the first to be widely-reported.^[2].

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