Gunmen kill U.S., Pakistani soldiers

The border fighting, about a mile inside Pakistani territory, coincided with continuing civil strife over Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's efforts to sideline the chief justice of the Supreme Court, a struggle that threatens the general's grip on power.

Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, has been virtually shut down by the unrest, which has left more than 40 people dead since the weekend. Shops were closed and most public transport halted as the opposition called for a general strike. Paramilitary police were given shoot-to-kill orders against anyone involved in street violence.

In Islamabad, the capital, opposition factions disrupted a session of parliament, shouting in reference to Musharraf, "The general is a killer!"

Adding to political tensions, a Supreme Court official was killed by gunmen before dawn Monday in his home in Islamabad, police and his family said.

Lawyers for the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, said the slain court official, Syed Hamid Raza, would have been an important witness in the legal battle over Chaudhry's status.

Chaudhry is at the center of a 2-month-old confrontation between Musharraf and opposition forces. The chief justice is seen as a potential obstacle to the president's plans to have himself reelected later this year by lawmakers.

Police said the killing apparently came in the course of an attempted robbery, but Raza's family suggested the motive for the shooting was political.

"You should have protected him, and now my children need protection as well," Raza's widow, Shabana, addressing Pakistani authorities, told Reuters news agency. She said she did not believe he was killed by would-be thieves.

Chaudhry's case is being heard by a panel of judges, but the proceedings have been put on hold.

The standoff over Chaudhry poses the most serious challenge to Musharraf's rule since he took power in a 1999 military coup.

The border violence, the worst in years between the two nations' troops, broke out as a convoy was carrying military officials from a meeting in the Pakistani town of Teri Mangal, close to the frontier. In addition to the fatalities, three U.S. soldiers, four Pakistani troops and an Afghan interpreter were reported hurt.