- Vital ally has closed off Nato supply routes into Afghanistan for the past 26 days in retaliation
- Nato spokesman: ‘We all made mistakes… we have work to do’
- Pakistan PM reveals fears of coup d’etat
Nato have blamed bad maps for last month’s drone strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops at a post close to the Afghan border. An investigation into the attack concluded that reliance on incorrect mapping information shared with the Pakistani liaison officer resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units.’
The US Defence Department said the investigation found US forces – given what information they had available to them at the time – reacted in self-defence and with appropriate force after being fired upon from the direction of the Pakistani border.
‘Friendly fire’: The border post was still smouldering days laterA Nato spokesman said: ‘The report says we recognise we made mistakes, and that mistakes were also made by the Pakistanis.
‘We have a lot of work to do to improve co-ordination, and we’ve already implemented steps to do that.’
‘Inadequate co-ordination by US and Pakistani military officers operating through the border co-ordination centre – 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,’ said the statement.
Retaliation: Pakistani authorities have closed-off Nato’s supply routes in to Afghanistan for the last 26 days‘This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placement of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result,’ it said.
Nato, Afghanistan and Pakistan forces use the joint border control centres to share information and co-ordinate security operations.
Since the attack on the Pakistani military outposts in mountainous east Kunar province, a furious Pakistani government has shut down Nato supply routes to Afghanistan and thrown the US out of its Shamsi Air base in south-western Baluchistan province.
The base was used to maintain drones used in strikes against insurgents hiding in safe havens in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt on the Afghan frontier.
Washington views Pakisatn’s co-operation as crucial to helping to stabilize the region before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.
U.S.- Pakistani relations were already frayed after the secret U.S. raid in May that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
‘For the loss of life – and for the lack of proper co-ordination 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 statement said.
‘It added that the military’s focus would now be to learn from the mistakes and ‘take whatever corrective measures are required to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.’
Hostile: The attacks have strained the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S.‘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 statement said.
