WASHINGTON, Dec 22: The location Pakistan received from a Nato coordination official was 14 kilometres away from the intended target, so they confirmed that they did not have troops in that spot but Nato forces raided nearby Pakistani border posts and killed 24 soldiers, said an official US investigation report released on Thursday.

The US Central Command, which conducted the investigation, blamed “inadequate coordination” for passing on this half-truth to the Pakistanis, offered its “deepest regret” and urged the United States and Pakistan to bridge their trust gap to prevent future incidents.

The report, however, did not identify those responsible for this misunderstanding and recommended no punishment for those who gave incorrect information to the Pakistanis.

“For the loss of life and for the lack of proper coordination between US and Pakistani forces that contributed to those losses -- we express our deepest regret,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told the briefing.

“We further express sincere condolences to the Pakistani people, to the Pakistani government, and most importantly to the families of the Pakistani soldiers who were killed or wounded,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the sole communication that reached the Pakistani LNO (liaison officer) in the Border Coordination Centre that he was given was a verbal description of the area,” said Brig Gen Stephen A. Clark, a US Air Force official tasked by the US Central Command to head the investigation.

Addressing a video conference at the Pentagon, Gen Clark said the monitoring station of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), which had conveyed incorrect information to Pakistani officials, had several people in the room, all with their own computers but they could not see each other’s screen. “So one person on the Isaf side received the exact coordinates; he inputs it into his machine, which then brings up a map -- a digital map of the area. He has his machine configured incorrectly so that the overlay lines on it that looked to be regional border delineations, in fact what I believe was actually a roadway. That was brought out in higher detail, but he thought it was the regional border,” the general explained.

The Isaf official, he added, had been told not to pass the coordinates to the Pakistanis but to only give a general location. “So on the Isaf side everybody had the exact coordinates, but it was passed to the Pakistani LNO as a general location, which normally might have worked had his machine been configured correctly,” Gen Clark said.

“It would have been a little bit less precise but the intent probably would’ve been achieved. But as they translate that -- and now he’s talking him on not physically walking over and pointing to a map. He tries to talk him on and says it is between where this regional border intersects the international border.

“And, of course, when the Pakistani LNO turns around and looks at his map where that regional border intersects the Pakistani border, he looks at that, looks at his computer, picks up the phone, calls his higher headquarters and tells them, ‘This is the location, and they coordinate and say, ‘No, we don’t have anybody there’. That location that he’s pointing to is 14 kilometres to the north.”

The details Gen Clark revealed at his briefing confirmed Pakistan’s earlier claims that they received false information from their American counterparts, but the general insisted that it was not done intentionally.

“Why not give the Pakistanis exact coordinates at this point? What was the hesitancy to do that?” asked a journalist.

“I’ve never seen it done to pass an exact coordinates of, ‘Hey, we’re taking fire exactly from here’. You’d pass the coordinates of a, ‘Hey, we’re in this area taking fire. Do you have something here?’ And then you would take a look at that. So that was their intent,” Gen Clark responded.