Rice offers regrets over Pakistan deaths

[unhappycamper]

Rice offers regrets over Pakistan deaths
By Anne Gearan - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 13, 2008 20:04:37 EDT

PARIS — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered her personal regrets to Pakistan on Friday for the deaths of soldiers whom the U.S. called partners in the battle against terrorism. The two nations remained at odds over what happened and whether the U.S. accidentally killed friendly forces.

Pakistan agreed to join a U.S. investigation of Tuesday’s bombing, which Pakistan says killed 11 of its soldiers camped along the lawless Afghan border. The U.S. military claims only enemy insurgents were targeted. Both countries publicly pledged to continue their anti-terrorism cooperation.

Rice met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Paris and told him the U.S. regrets the incident at the border.

It was part of a U.S. effort to smooth relations with an important ally now under new management. Civilian leaders chosen this year in Pakistan are less friendly to U.S. terrorism policies than former Army strongman Pervez Musharraf, whose power was diminished.

“We need to find out how and why it happened — what exactly happened — get to the bottom of it jointly and then figure out how to make sure we avoid this in the future,” Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said following Rice’s meeting with Qureshi.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_US_pakistan_rice_061308/