President Barack Obama sees the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO raid as a tragedy, the White House said on Monday, but argued that crisis-wracked US-Pakistani ties were vital to both sides.
Obama’s comments came as the US State Department spokesman expressed Washington’s concerns on how the attack will affect relations between the two countries. “Of course we’re concerned about the impact of this incident on our relations with Pakistan,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “We’re trying to work through this.” White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Obama believed Saturday’s attack, which threw US-Pakistani ties into turmoil, was “a tragedy,” adding that “we mourn those brave Pakistani service members that lost their lives.” “We take this matter very seriously,” said Carney, adding that two enquiries by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and US Central Command would examine what took place.
“As for our relationship with Pakistan, it continues to be an important cooperative relationship that is also very complicated,” Carney said. “It is very much in America’s national security interest to maintain a cooperative relationship with Pakistan because we have shared interests in the fight against terrorism,” Carney said.
WAR EFFORT: Meanwhile, the Pentagon said the US military would press ahead with its war effort in Afghanistan despite Pakistan’s decision to cut off supplies to NATO-led forces after the lethal air strikes.
“The war effort continues,” press secretary George Little told reporters. Asked how long US and coalition forces could operate without supplies from routes running through Pakistan, he said: “I don’t have a time line to share. But the important point to focus on is the war effort will continue. Everyone realises we have an enemy to engage in Afghanistan and the US military is prepared to carry on.” The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, had asked US Central Command to lead an investigation into the air strikes, Little said. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sent an initial assessment team over the weekend to the border to collect facts surrounding the incident, he said.
Both Allen and the military’s top-ranking officer General Martin Dempsey spoke to Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani about the incident, he said. “Obviously they did express their condolences and regrets but I think everyone realises the facts need to be collected, analysed and that the investigation needs to unfold,” he said.
The Pentagon spokesman also said he could not confirm reports that Pakistan had banned US government aircraft or ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) out of the Shamsi airbase, which has reportedly been used for US drone strikes against militants. “I’m not aware of any US military personnel at that base,” Little said.
