Pentagon rejects Pakistan army claim on NATO blunder

[IndianTiger]

WASHINGTON — The United
States rejected Monday the
findings of a Pakistani probe
into NATO air strikes that
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in
late November, saying the investigation ignored the fact
that "mistakes" were made on
both sides. At a press briefing, Pentagon
spokesman John Kirby said
the Pakistani army had
officially delivered during the
weekend a copy of the report
conducted by Islamabad on the November 26 strikes
against a Pakistani border
post. "The statement that this was
an unprovoked attack by US
forces is simply false," said
Navy Captain Kirby. "It was
not an unprovoked attack,"
he said. "There were errors made by both sides here." Underscoring its criticism of
the NATO force in
Afghanistan, the Pakistani
military rejected Monday US
efforts to apportion some of
the blame to Pakistan as "unwarranted and
unacceptable." Kirby said the Pentagon was
"100 percent" behind the
findings of the investigation
report released last month by
the US military. That report, while
acknowledging some
responsibility in the bombing
of one or two Pakistani
border posts, argued that
NATO troops had fired in "self- defense" after being shot at
by "heavy weapons and
mortar" from an
"unidentified" source in a
remote area infiltrated by
Taliban organizations. Captain Kirby regretted that
Islamabad refused to
participate in the investigation
initiated by the US military. He
called on Pakistan to reopen
supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan, which
were closed after the
bombing. "We want to get past all this
and we want to build a good
cooperative relationship with
the Pakistani military," he
said. The crisis in US-Pakistani
relations has been
overshadowed by a stand-off
between the courts and the
civilian government that
analysts believe could force early elections in Pakistan
within months.