WASHINGTON: The United States and Nato on Sunday described the air strikes on Pakistani posts as an “unintended incident” but reports in the US media indicated that Afghan troops operating in the border region had directed the Nato strikes that killed 24 Pakistani army personnel.
At the White House, US President Barack Obama received several briefings on the raid and its aftermath throughout the Thanksgiving weekend, officials said.
A senior White House official said the United States wanted to work with Pakistan to investigate the deaths.
“This was a tragic unintended incident,” Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement, adding that he fully supported a Nato investigation that was under way.
“We will determine what happened, and draw the right lessons.”
He said he had called Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and told him that the attack was as “unacceptable and deplorable as the deaths of Afghan and international personnel.”
In a joint statement issued in Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon E.
Panetta expressed their sympathies and a commitment to review the circumstances of the incident. Both also stressed “the importance of the US-Pakistani partnership, which serves the mutual interests of our people”.
Mr Rasmussen also stressed the joint interest of Nato and Pakistan in the fight against militants and said the alliance was committed to working with Pakistan to ensure such incidents did not recur.
Secretaries Clinton and Panetta said they were closely monitoring the incident in the Mohmand agency, which borders Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.
“Both offer their deepest condolences for the loss of life and support fully Nato’s intention to investigate immediately,” it added.
But the Wall Street Journal quoted Afghan military officials as saying that Afghan forces on a night-time operation on Saturday came under fire from across the border in Pakistan before they called in an air strike on two Pakistani military border posts.
Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and US forces in Afghanistan, met top government leaders in Kabul for a special security meeting to discuss the incident.
A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, Gen. Carsten Jacobson, told CNN that “a technical situation on the ground … caused the force to call for close air support and it is this close air support that highly likely caused the soldiers that perished on the Pakistani side.”
In another interview to CBS News, Gen. Jacobson elaborated that Afghan and Nato forces were holding a joint exercise in Kunar, close to the border with Pakistan.
“Air support was called in, and it is highly likely that this close air support killed Pakistani soldiers,” he said.
Gen. Jacobson assured Pakistan that an investigation was under way into why close support had been called in: “We need to have the technical proof of what was said at what time by whom to whom. Speed is not important, but we need to get the Pakistani side involved to find out what their involvement was,” he said.
In Washington, a joint State-Pentagon statement pointed out that Secretary Clinton, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Allen, commander had each called their Pakistani counterparts to convey their feelings.
Cameron P. Munter, US ambassador to Pakistan, also met Pakistani government officials in Islamabad.
“In their contacts, these US diplomatic and military leaders each … pledged to remain in close contact with their Pakistani counterparts going forward as we work through this challenging time,” it added.
In a separate statement, Isaf said its leadership remained committed to improving security relations with Pakistan, including
coordination of operations along border regions in the united fight against terrorism.
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