Pak military rejects US-led probe on air strike

Pakistan's military today rejected a US-led probe into American air strikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, describing it as "short on facts".

Pakistan's military on Friday rejected a US-led probe into American air strikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, describing it as "short on facts".

"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 statement.

The probe said US and Pakistani forces both made a series of mistakes that led to "tragic" US air strikes.

The results of the joint US-Nato investigation portrayed a disastrous spate of errors and botched communication in the November 25-26 incident, in which both sides failed to tell the other information about their operational plans or the location of troops, officers said.

"(A) detailed response will be given as and when the formal report is received," the Pakistani military said.

Pakistan shut its border to Nato supply convoys on November 26, hours after the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan and boycotted a conference in Bonn on Afghanistan's future.

The government also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base in the southwest, widely reported to be a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan.

The November 26 attack brought the fragile Pakistani-US alliance to a fresh low, already reeling from a covert American raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital on May 2.