WASHINGTON, Nov 29: As the United States appointed a one-star air force general to probe Nato air strikes that have further eroded US-Pakistan relations, the US military chief said on Tuesday he believed the relationship was still retrievable.

Also, preliminary investigation reports leaked to the US media on Tuesday, described the deadliest ‘friendly fire’ incident with Pakistan since the Afghan war began as a case of ‘mistaken identity’. Apparently the Taliban lured Nato forces into attacking the border posts, which caused the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend, the reports said. Gen James N. Mattis, who heads the US Central Command, said he had asked Gen Stephen Clark to complete an initial report on the incident by Dec 23.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force and the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments also will name representatives to the team, said a Centcom press release.

“Their participation will facilitate the investigative process to determine what happened and how we preclude it from happening again,” Gen Mattis said.

Gen John R. Allen, commander of US and Isaf forces in Afghanistan, has designated a judge advocate to serve as Gen Clark’s legal adviser for the investigation.

Gen Mattis said he expected Gen Clark and his team to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident.

Gen Clark will also determine which US, Isaf, Afghan and Pakistan units were involved; which units did or did not cross the border and under what conditions and authorities. “What coordination was conducted, what battle damage occurred and the cause of deaths and injuries; and recommendations for improving near-border operations,” a Pentagon report said.

Meanwhile, Gen Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a series of media interviews that Nato and Pakistani officials were working hard to seek a resolution of this dispute.

“(The Pakistani people) have reason to be furious, because they have 24 soldiers dead, and the ordnance that killed them was the ordnance of a partner,” the general said. “But I’d certainly like to enlist their patience to find out what happened and to try to work through this.”

Gen Dempsey said he called Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani immediately after hearing of the incident, noting that he and Mr Kayani had known each other since 1988, when both attended the US Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. He said he promised the Pakistani military leader that Nato would do all it could to investigate the incident and to work with the Pakistani military to ensure this kind of incident did not happen again.

The border incident was the most serious he had been involved with, Gen Dempsey noted.

US-Pakistani relations “are on about as rocky a road as I’ve seen”, he acknowledged. “Is it irretrievable? I don’t think so. I think if we understand the seriousness with which this event is being viewed in Pakistan, and they understand we are taking it seriously, then I think we will have at least the beginnings of an opportunity to find our way through it.”

On Tuesday, the US media quoted senior US military officials as saying they believed Nato forces might have been lured into attacking friendly Pakistani border posts in a calculated manoeuvre by the Taliban.

The officials, who have seen preliminary US military reports on the incident, said it was apparently a case of mistaken identity.

A joint US-Afghan patrol was attacked by the Taliban early on Saturday morning. While pursuing the enemy in the poorly marked border area, the patrol seems to have mistaken one of the Pakistan troop outposts for a militant encampment and called in a Nato gunship and attack helicopters to open fire.

US military reports suggested that the Taliban might have deliberately tried to provoke a cross-border firefight that would set back fragile partnerships between the US and Nato forces and Pakistani soldiers at the ill-defined border.

But a senior Pakistani military official, Gen Ashfaq Nadeem, told reporters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday that it was “next to impossible that Nato” did not know they were attacking Pakistani forces.

According to the US military records, the joint US and Afghan patrol requested back-up after being hit by mortar and small arms fire by Taliban militants.

Before responding, the joint US-Afghan patrol first checked with the Pakistani army, which reported it had no troops in the area, the military account said.

Some two hours later, the US commander spotted what he thought was a militant encampment, with heavy weapons mounted on tripods.

The joint patrol called for the air strikes at around 2:21 am Pakistan time, not realising the encampment was apparently the Pakistani border post.

Records show the aerial response included Apache attack helicopters and an AC-130 gunship. US officials are working on the assumption the Taliban chose the location for the first attack to create just such confusion and draw US and Pakistani forces into firing on each other, the US media reported.

In a related development, the US State Department issued a new warning for US citizens in Pakistan. It said some US government personnel working in Pakistan were being recalled to Islamabad and warned Americans to be on guard for possible retaliation. US citizens in Pakistan are being told to travel in pairs, avoid crowds and demonstrations and keep a low profile.