From distrust to disaster

The US Department of Defense has issued a statement regarding the NATO attack on the Afghan border which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26. To Pakistan’s dismay it is not an apology.

According to the statement, US forces reacted in self-defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon from the direction of the Pakistani border. "Inadequate coordination by US and Pakistani military officers operating through the border coordination center - 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," the statement said.

The view from Mons

In Mons, Belgium, NATO's supreme military headquarters, a NATO spokesman said that on the day of the attack, the 150 member-strong joint US-Afghan commando unit had been fired upon from the border while operating in Afghanistan's Kunar province by what they thought were insurgents and had legitimately responded in self-defense.

Spokesman Col. Gregory Julian said, "a series of mistakes were made on both sides in failing to properly coordinate their locations and actions" because different mapping systems were used to determine the exact location of the enemy fire. "Close air support was employed in response to intense, heavy machine gun and mortar fire initiated by what turned out to be Pakistani forces," Col. Julian said.

A matter of trust

The report reveals that due to the difficulties of the terrain, the unit was not able to withdraw. Believing that the fire wasn't coming from anywhere near Pakistani positions, they called in airstrikes from F-15 bombers, Apache attack helicopters and an AC-130 Spectre gunship. NATO's investigation report further mentions "an element of distrust…contributed to the mistakes."

The US statement, too, focused on the growing distrust between the US and their ally by commenting: "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."

Author: Arun Chowdhury (AP, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Sarah Berning