Pakistani troops have been told to fire on U.S. forces if they launch another cross-border raid from Afghanistan, a military spokesman in Islamabad said Tuesday.

On Sept. 3, U.S. special forces attacked a suspected Taliban position on Pakistani territory, in what’s believed to be the first cross-border ground assault of the Afghan counter-insurgency.

Pakistan's civilian leaders have protested the raid but said that the dispute with Washington should be resolved through diplomatic channels.

The Pakistani army’s Maj.-Gen. Athar Abbas said the new orders were a response to the raid, in which U.S. helicopters ferried troops into the Pakistani territory of South Waziristan, a known stronghold of the Taliban.

"The orders are clear," Abbas said in an interview with the Associated Press. "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."