Showdown as Pakistan rejects US inquiry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday rejected a US probe into the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers, extending a crisis in its US alliance now overshadowed by a showdown between the government and military in Islamabad.

The November 26 US air strikes on the Pakistani border with Afghanistan plunged the precarious Pakistani-US alliance to its lowest ebb in a decade, with both sides still in dispute about the precise sequence of events.

An inquiry, headed by a US air force general, blamed US and Pakistani forces for a series of mistakes that led to what was the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

The Americans acknowledged for the first time significant responsibility, but insisted their troops responded only after coming under heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, angering Islamabad, which has denied any such thing.

The probe portrayed a disastrous spate of errors and botched communication in which both sides failed to tell the other about their operational plans or location of troops, exposing deep distrust endemic in the alliance.

"Pakistan's army does not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as being reported in the media. The inquiry report is short on facts," the military said in a short statement.

"A detailed response will be given as and when the formal report is received," it added.

Pakistan refused to take part in the inquiry and instead sought a formal apology from US President Barack Obama, dissatisfied with condolences and expressions of regret from the Americans.

Islamabad has kept its Afghan border closed to NATO convoys since November 26, boycotted the Bonn conference on Afghanistan and ordered Americans to leave an air base understood to have been a hub for CIA drone strikes on the Taliban.

The 28-day border closure is unprecedented in the 10-year US-led war in Afghanistan, shutting down the quickest and cheapest supply line for 140,000 foreign troops fighting the Taliban.

The crisis has also seen a halt in US drone strikes in Pakistan, which Pakistani politicians have called a bid not to create further tensions.

Analysts saw little in the report that would repair relations, particularly with the government and military locked in a standoff sparked by alleged attempts by one of the president's aides to rein in the military with US help.

"Our military and government have promoted anti-Americanism on this issue, thereby restricting their own options to re-open negotiations with the US," Lahore-based security analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.

"Given the present crises in Pakistan, neither the civil government nor the military will make a positive move towards the US," he added.

On Friday, the Pakistani press was consumed with a showdown between the government and the military, a day after an unprecedented tirade from embattled Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani against the army.

"Point of no return?" asked English-language newspaper The News, writing: "A spectre is haunting Pakistan -- the spectre of a clash between the army and the government that threatens to turn fatal".

Newspaper Dawn said the country once again appeared to be headed towards a nerve-wracking crisis, saying that the breach between the army and the government appears to have widened to dangerous levels.

On Thursday, Gilani said conspirators were plotting to bring down his government and added angrily that the army, considered the chief arbiter of power in Pakistan, could not be a state within a state.

The Supreme Court met again Friday, deciding whether to investigate a memo allegedly written by an aide of President Asif Ali Zardari calling for US help to prevent a feared military coup after the US killing of Osama bin Laden.

Husain Haqqani flatly denies the accusations from a US businessman but was forced to resign as ambassador to Washington last month over the scandal.

Pakistani-US relations have hit rock bottom this year, over a CIA contractor who shot dead two people in January and the May 2 covert raid that killed bin Laden near the capital without Washington informing the government.

In the northwest overnight one Frontier Constabulary soldier was killed and 11 others injured when dozens of militants attacked their checkpost in the town of Tank, officials said.

At least 15 soldiers went missing after the attack, but it was unclear whether they deserted or whether they were kidnapped.

Source: MOLE