Pakistan Army rejects findings of the U.S investigation mission into NATO airstrikes

The Pakistani army on Friday rejected key findings from a U.S. investigation into American airstrikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and said the report was unlikely to repair the severely damaged relationship between
the two countries.

The investigation — details of which were released Thursday — concluded that mistakes on both sides led to last month’s deadly attack along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan has maintained its troops did nothing
wrong and the attack was a deliberate act of aggression.

Pakistan refused to participate in the investigation, claiming past U.S. probes into border incidents were biased. It also retaliated against the attack by closing its border to NATO supplies meant for troops in Afghanistan and
kicking the U.S. out of a base used to operate American drones.

Pakistan’s response, while not surprising, is likely to worry Washington since the country’s support is critical for the Afghan war. Pakistan not only provides a key route for supplies, but is important for peace negotiations with
the Taliban.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas rejected the report’s claim that Pakistani troops fired at American and Afghan forces first, triggering the incident. He told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that Pakistani
forces retaliated only after coalition helicopters “started engagement.” He also denied that Pakistan failed to notify NATO of the location of the two border posts that were attacked.

Abbas expressed surprise and frustration that the U.S. refused to apologize for the deaths of the soldiers, something many Pakistanis have demanded. He rejected an American offer to pay compensation to the victims’ families, saying
the army has its own welfare system.

“Nobody is interested in compensation,” he said. “It is not in our military culture to take money for a fallen soldier. It is abhorred. We will take care of our own,” Abbas said.

U.S. officials on Thursday accepted some blame for the incident and expressed regret for the deaths, but said their troops acted “with appropriate force” in self-defence because they thought they were being attacked by Taliban
insurgents.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, an Air Force special operations officer who led the investigation, said in a Pentagon briefing that U.S. forces did not know that the two relatively new Pakistani outposts — spare structures constructed
with stacked gray stones — had been set up on the border.

Abbas repeated the army’s claim that Pakistan had given NATO maps that clearly marked the location of the two outposts — Volcano and Boulder — located on a mountain ridge in the Mohmand tribal area. He also said the Taliban do
not use such structures.

“Taliban do not make posts,” said Abbas. “No insurgents make posts. It is a running war against insurgents.”

Abbas accused NATO and Afghan forces of “gross violations” of standard operating procedures, including not informing Pakistan that their forces would be conducting an overnight operation along the border on Nov. 25-26 when the
attack occurred.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=7201

Posted by Hamza Jahangir on Dec 23 2011. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry