Pakistan military rejects NATO strike inquiry report
The Air Force’s Global Hawk drone (AKA unmanned aerial vehicles) makes aerospace history as the first to fly unrefueled 7,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Pakistan has denounced the CIA’s covert drone program in Pakistan after a deadly NATO strike against Pakistani troops deteriorated US-Pakistan relations.
Pakistan on Friday rejected the findings of a joint US-NATO inquiry into an air strike on the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, the BBC reported.
The inquiry, headed by a US Air Force general, found that both the American and Pakistani forces were to blame for the deaths, citing poor information and insufficient coordination between forces on the ground.
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But the Pakistani military said the report – which found its forces, along with those of the US, had failed to share operational plans and the location of troops – was "short on facts,” the BBC reported.
In a short statement, the military said: "A detailed response will be given as and when the formal report is received."
The investigation concerns the details of the NATO air strike carried out on November 26, which targeted a village near the Pakistani-Afghan border in the deadliest cross-border attack during the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
On Thursday the Americans conceded for the first time that they bore significant responsibility for the strikes, Agence France Presse reported.
However the US said its troops had been responding to heavy machine-gun and mortar fire.
More from GlobalPost: Obama 'will not issue formal apology' to Pakistan
Pakistan refused to take part in the inquiry, and has sought a formal apology from President Barack Obama.
The attack triggered outrage in Pakistan and prompted Islamabad to block crucial NATO supply convoys to Afghanistan.
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