By Amena Khokhar, KUNA,
Islamabad : The government of Pakistan has received formal invitation from the US to join the probe in Allied Forces’ air strike on Pakistani bordering tribal areas that killed at least 11 soldiers late on Tuesday.
Islamabad Friday received a formal invitation to join the US and Afghanistan in an investigation into an air strike in Mohmand tribal agency, foreign office sources told KUNA.
They said the government will soon respond to the invitation after consolations, adding that senior military officials will join their US counterparts in the probe. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates Thursday extended an invitation to Pakistan to join the investigations into the attack that, according to official figures, killed 11 soldiers but political belonging to the region claimed at least 35 persons were killed and several were wounded. Robert Gates regretted the incident and said he had not personally spoken to Pakistanis, but the US military had. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been in contact with his counterpart in Pakistan.
“Personally, I regret we have had something that has created a problem. We have had an incident that has created a problem between us and the government of Pakistan,” he said in Brussels.
“We agree we need to investigate this incident,” Gates said. “We have invited the Afghans and the Pakistanis to be a part of the investigation,” he added.
Pakistan has lodged a strong diplomatic protest saying the government will take stand on sovereignty, dignity, self respect of the country.
However, the US military has released excerpts of a video shot by a surveillance drone circling above the mountainous battle zone.
The video shows the “anti-Afghan militants” moving to a position identified as inside Pakistan and the impact of a bomb which the voiceover says killed two of them. The survivors then fled into a ravine, where three more bombs were dropped, nearly three hours after the clash began.
Despite strong protests by Islamabad, the Allied Forces conducted another air-strike in another Pakistani bordering tribal agency of South Waziristan Wednesday night. The second attack did not cause any human loss but inflicted heavy property damage on local populace.