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-defense 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.
Clark acknowledged the U.S. had
not informed Pakistan that American and Afghan commandos were conducting
an operation. U.S. and NATO commanders believe that some of their
military operations have been compromised when they've given details and
locations to the Pakistanis, he said.
U.S. Marine Gen. John
Allen, the coalition's top commander in Afghanistan, was in Pakistan
meeting army chief Gen. Pervez Ashfaq Kayani at the time of the incident
in an attempt to repair their relationship. Kayani had made the
overture to Allen, inviting him to Pakistan.
Pentagon officials
said Thursday that military leaders had spoken by phone with Kayani
about the report's conclusions, but have not yet given him a detailed
briefing.
Abbas accused U.S. and NATO forces of ignoring
established rules of engagement aimed at avoiding friendly fire
incidents. These rules demand troops under attack contact Pakistan to
determine whether fire is coming from one of the country's outposts.
Abbas
said Pakistan informed NATO forces in Afghanistan that the Volcano post
has been hit, "but they kept firing and hit Boulder as well as the
reinforcements going to help out the soldiers at Volcano."
Clark
acknowledged U.S. forces failed to determine who was firing at them and
whether there were friendly Pakistani forces in the area. Clark said
U.S. forces used incorrect maps and mistakenly provided Pakistan with
the wrong location where they said fighting was taking place — an area
almost nine miles (14 kilometers) away.
Abbas gave no indication
of when Pakistan might lift its embargo on NATO supplies to troops in
Afghanistan. However, he indicated the government would levy additional
fees when the route is eventually reopened.
"You can't use our port, destroy our roads and get away without paying for it," Abbas said.
The
attack was the latest of a series of crises to strain the relationship
between Pakistan and the U.S. this year. A CIA contractor shot and
killed two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore in January, setting
off a storm of anti-American protests.
This anger was compounded
by the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison
town in May. The Pakistanis were outraged by the operation because they
were not told about it beforehand.
Abbas said the future
relationship between the Pakistani and U.S. militaries will likely be
defined in a "very stern, formal way ... with well-defined limits of
cooperation." AP
