U.S.: Poor coordination, mapping data led to Pakistani deaths in cross-border raid

  Disagreements underscore fissures between the U.S and Pakistan amid efforts to engineer a settlement to the war in Afghanistan.

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Ernesto Londoño

Dec 22 2011

KABUL-The U.S. military acknowledged on Thursday that commanders in Afghanistan made serious mistakes during a cross-border raid last month in which 24 Pakistani police officers were killed.

A report about the Nov. 25 incident found that “inadequate coordination by U.S. and Pakistani military officers,” and erroneous map information provided by NATO to Pakistani authorities, were to blame for the battlefield blunder, which has added enormous strain to the already fraught relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

The lack of coordination and the incorrect mapping “resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units,” the Pentagon said in a statementissued early Thursday. “This, coupled with other gaps in information about the activities and placements of units from both sides, contributed to the tragic result.”

“For the loss of life -- and for the lack of proper coordination between U.S. and Pakistani forces that contributed to those losses --we express our deepest regret,” the Pentagon said

The investigation found that U.S. forces “acted in self defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon,” the statement said. It determined that American forces did not willfully target Pakistani security forces or deliberately mislead Pakistani liaison officers.

The report has been forwarded to top Pentagon officials, and shared with the Pakistani and Afghan governments and NATO leadership, the statement said. Senior military officials will determine whether to take any disciplinary action.

“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 statement said. “. . .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.”