U.S. admits mistakes in attack

WASHINGTON – After 10 years of war in Afghanistan, a persistent lack of trust between the U.S. and Pakistan still complicates operations along the critical Afghanistan border and was a key factor in the errant American airstrikes late last month that killed 24 Pakistani troops.

U.S. officials on Thursday accepted some blame for the deadly incident that infuriated Pakistani leaders, prompting Pakistan to shut down key supply routes for the war and further eroding America’s already rocky relations with Islamabad. The Defense Department briefed reporters Thursday on the conclusions reached in its investigation into the November incident.

But the U.S. did not apologize, despite the embarrassing series of communications and coordination errors. Pentagon officials said Thursday that military leaders had spoken by phone to Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani about the report’s conclusions, but have not given him a detailed briefing.

Pakistan refused to cooperate in the investigation. And the U.S. report – placing some of the blame on Islamabad – is likely to only increase their fury, hamper any hope of rebuilding the relationship and delay the opening of the supply routes.

In a Pentagon briefing, Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, an Air Force special operations officer who led the investigation, made it clear that U.S. forces were fired on first and acted in self-defense.

But he acknowledged that efforts to determine who was firing on the U.S troops and whether there were friendly Pakistani forces in the area – the primary questions in any cross-border incident – failed because U.S. forces used inaccurate maps, were unaware of Pakistani border post locations and mistakenly provided the wrong location for the troops.