July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

WASHINGTON, July 16: A US air strike that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in June was the result of an ‘incomplete’ US military database that did not include the location of the soldiers’ post on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, US officials said on Wednesday.

Defence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said preliminary results of a joint US-Pakistani probe of the incident show that the military post’s location just inside Pakistan was never entered into a US database designed to prevent attacks on friendly forces in the area.

One official emphasised the investigation had not been formally completed and the findings could still be subject to change.

ISPR’S DENIAL: A spokesman for Inter-Services Public Relations in Islamabad described as factually incorrect and devoid of facts a news report published in a section of US media on Wednesday, claiming that a Pakistani checkpoint hit by allied forces was not in United States’ record.

In its recent issue, the New York Times claimed the Pakistani post was not in the US records.

“All posts on the Pakistani side of the border were shared with coalition forces at least thrice, since 2003,” the spokesman said.

“Even marked maps were handed over to coalition forces at one stage, indicating the location of the posts,” the spokesman concluded.—Agencies