US blames ‘communication breakdown’ for attacks against Pak

ISLAMABAD - US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen has reportedly called his Pakistani counterpart to discuss the series of attacks allegedly by the US-led International Security Assistance Force against Pakistan during the last three days, and assured that him that Washington respected Islamabad’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that the attacks might have been the result of a “communication breakdown.”

Earlier, Pakistan had lodged strong protests against the attacks and warned the US that if forces in Afghanistan continued to violate its territorial integrity it would be forced to take action against them.

According to The Dawn, Col Dave Lapan, Director at Dept of Defense Press Operations, has said that recent cross-border air strikes by NATO helicopters in Pakistan might have violated procedures and resulted from “communication breakdowns”.

“I don’t know that I’d call it a disagreement but there are certainly discussions under way between our forces and the Pakistanis about this particular incident,” he said.

“I think I can say that clearly in these instances things didn’t occur in the way that they’re supposed to. And that’s what we’re trying to get to.” Col Lapan stated further.

He said the talks were focused on “what were the communication breakdowns, what happened, what was supposed to happen”.

Earlier, Pakistan had reportedly warned the Americans saying, they are “very sensitive to their sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The Pakistanis said that they were still investigating the three incidents to see if the helicopters fired their weapons from the Afghan territory or physically entered Pakistan, the paper said. (ANI)