The US had planned to offer an official apology over last November’s NATO strike on Salala checkpost, but the plan was upset by the explosion of violent rioting in Afghanistan over the alleged burning of Holy Quran by US troops at Bagram airbase, according to a report carried by New York Times on Friday. “Under a carefully coordinated plan, the [US] military had planned for Gen Martin E Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to make a formal apology for the American strike via telephone to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, on Thursday,” according to a Defence Department official.