Pakistani officials have declined to participate in the United States’ investigation into the circumstances surrounding a NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, a Pentagon official told reporters on Friday.
“The Pakistanis have certainly been invited to join the investigation,” said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little. “We believe their participation would be important as we look into this tragic incident.They have elected, to date, not to participate, but we would welcome their participation.”
Capt. John Kirby, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Relations, explained why the United States is not apologizing for the strikes. “What we aren’t going to do is get into fixing blame or fault right now,” he said. “[Remember that] it was a military engagement, in fact, that that cross-border fire resulted in the deaths of some two dozen Pakistani soldiers, not innocent villagers or civilians. I’m not going to get into the details of how it occurred. That’s what we’re doing right now in the investigation.”
Early reports indicated that the Pakistanis fired first, provoking a counterstrike. Pakistan has denied firing first.
