Centcom releases report into Af/Pak border incident that killed 24 Pak troops

Posted Dec 26, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Dec 26, 2011 at 11:26 AM

Pakistani troops opened fire on NATO forces, sparking a cross-border incident exacerbated by continued Pakistani firing, mutual mistrust, an insufficient command override system, poor coordination and a series of miscommunications within the chain of command.

That’s the finding of a U.S. Central Command investigation, led by Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Clark, into the incident at the Salala Checkpoint on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that resulted in two dozen Pakistani troops being killed by NATO forces. An unclassified copy of the report was released this morning on the Centcom website.

The deaths that resulted from Operation Sayaqa further damaged already tenuous relations between NATO and Pakistan, which shut down border crossings, preventing upwards of 30 percent of the supplies the International Security Assistance Force needs to continue Operation Enduring Freedom.

After reviewing the incident, investigators recommended, among other things:

• An “immediate program of confidence-building measures to foster a climate of trust.”
• “Train and practice procedures for cross-border and near-border operations.”
• Initiate “a more aggressive system of senior leadership visits to critical coordination nodes to create the right level of engagement at all key locations
• Insist on detailed reconnaissance of the are and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sweeps prior to the operation
• Implement a program of transparency for border installations and garrisons on both sides of the border.