(already subscribe? log in).

Errors by US, Pakistan led to airstrike, Pentagon says

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 23, 2011|By Matthew Rosenberg

KABUL — Mistakes by both US and Pakistani forces led to airstrikes against Pakistani posts on the Afghanistan border that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers last month, according to a Pentagon investigation that for the first time acknowledged some American responsibility for the clash, which plunged the already frayed relationship between the United States and Pakistan to a new low. But a crucial finding — that the Pakistanis fired first — was likely to further anger Pakistan.

US officials said yesterday that the investigation, which has not yet been released, had concluded the airstrikes were an act of selfdefense ultimately justified because Pakistani soldiers opened fire on a joint team of Afghan and US special operations forces operating along the often poorly demarcated frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

‘‘US forces, given what information they had available to them at the time, acted in self-defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon,’’ the Department of Defense said in a statement yesterday. The US investigator ‘‘also found that there was no intentional effort to target persons or places known to be part of the Pakistani military.’’

Pakistan has insisted that its forces did nothing wrong and that they did not fire the first shots. Rather, senior Pakistani officials have accused the United States of knowingly striking the border posts.

Officials in Pakistan have said they will accept nothing short of a complete apology from President Obama.

The Defense Department statement did include an apology, although it did not appear to go as far as Pakistani officials have demanded.

‘‘For the loss of life — and for the lack of proper coordination between US and Pakistani forces that contributed to those losses —we express our deepest regret,’’ it said in part. The Pakistani army sent a brief statement to reporters today just after midnight, saying media reports of the investigation indicated it was ‘‘short on facts,’’ Associated Press reported. A more detailed response is promised when the report is received.

The army has said its troops did nothing wrong and has asserted that the attack was a deliberate act of aggression.

Pakistan refused to participate in the investigation and has also retaliated by closing its Afghan border to NATO supplies and kicking the United States out of a base used by American drones.