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WASHINGTON: The official US investigation blames "indequate coordination" between US and Pakistan military officers for the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a Nato attack in Mohmand last month and offers regrets to the people and government of Pakistan, the Pentagon announced on Thursday.
A Pentagon announcement said that the investigation into the 25-26 November engagement between US and Pakistani military forces across the border has been completed. The findings and conclusions were forwarded to the US Department of Defence through the chain of command. The results have also been shared with the Pakistani and Afghan governments, as well as key Nato leadership.
"The investigating officer found that US forces, given what information they had available to them at the time, acted in self defence and with appropriate force after being fired upon," the report said. He also found that there was "no intentional effort to target persons or places known to be part of the Pakistani military, or to deliberately provide inaccurate location information to Pakistani officials."
Nevertheless, "inadequate coordination by US and Pakistani military officers operating through the border coordination center, including our reliance on incorrect mapping information shared with the Pakistani liaison officer", resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units.
"This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result," the report added.
"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. We further express sincere condolences to the Pakistani people, to the Pakistani government, and most importantly to the families of the Pakistani soldiers who were killed or wounded," the Pentagon said.
"Our focus now is to learn from these mistakes and take whatever corrective measures are required to ensure an incident like this is not repeated."
The Pentagon said that the US chain of command will now "consider any issues of accountability."
But more critically, "we must work to improve the level of trust between our two countries. We cannot operate effectively on the border, or in other parts of our relationship, without addressing the fundamental trust still lacking between us. We earnestly hope the Pakistani military will join us in bridging that gap," the Pentagon concluded.
