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Probe finds US mistakes in Pakistan air strike: reports Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:07
WASHINGTON: The United States will soon concede responsibility in part for last month's air strikes in Pakistan that killed 24 soldiers, US media reports said Thursday citing US officials.
Results of a US military probe, to be given to defense officials Friday, show US and Afghan commandos were wrong in concluding there were no Pakistani forces in the border region before giving a strike go-ahead, officials familiar with the probe told the Wall Street Journal.
The probe says the strikes were deemed justified as Pakistani troops had fired first at a team of US and Afghan special forces troops in the border, according to the New York Times, also citing unnamed US officials.
Pakistan has sought a full apology from President Barack Obama for the strikes, while US officials have maintained the November 26 incident was a regrettable mistake.
The deadly strikes have heighten tension on an already fragile relationship, with Islamabad cutting off critical NATO supply routes to Afghanistan, and Pakistani officials going as far as alleging deliberate US targeting of their troops at the border posts.
The military investigation finds that US forces provided inaccurate information to Pakistani troops in region after the initial assault, at a time when strikes could have been avoided, according to the Journal.
Miscommunication between both US and Pakistan forces is blamed in the report, according to officials cited by the Times.
"The overarching issue that surrounds this incident is a lack of trust" between US and Pakistan authorities, in the lead up to the strike, an official told the Journal.
Revelations from the military probe placing blame on both US and Pakistani forces could further enrage Islamabad, where officials have maintained their troops did nothing wrong, and did not fire first.
In Washington last week, a Pakistan embassy official said NATO forces could not have mistaken the two border posts on the Afghan border for bases of Islamic extremists such as the Taliban as they stood on high ground and had structures.
The Pakistani official had declined to speculate on US motivations for any alleged deliberate attack.
The incident comes amid high tension between the United States and Pakistan, whose military -- long the country's most powerful institution -- has been on the defensive since the secret US raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden.
Obama has telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari to offer his condolences over the strike, but Washington has stopped short of apologising pending the outcome of the military probe. (AFP)