The United States is continuing military dialogue with Pakistan despite recent serious setbacks because the US-Pakistani relationship is very important, Pentagon spokesman George Little said on Wednesday. The US, he said, had conducted “a thorough investigation” into the border incident in late November, in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a NATO air strike near the Afghanistan border, and “expressed our deepest regret to the Pakistani people”, the spokesman told reporters.
“We have acknowledged and take responsibility for the mistakes we made on Nov 25-26,” he said, adding that the US had also offered to compensate the families of those killed and wounded in the incident. Despite the US moves to remedy the relations damaged by the attack, ground supply routes through Pakistan remained closed to coalition forces in Afghanistan. “We are hopeful that our Pakistani partners will reopen the ground supply routes,” Little said.
