U.S., Pakistan disagree on friendly fire

WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- The United States and Pakistan disagree over what went wrong when U.S. airstrikes killed 11 Pakistani fighters last month, sources say.

Citing unnamed sources from both countries, The New York Times reported Wednesday that U.S. officials claim they didn't have the coordinates of the Pakistani paramilitary fighters' base near the Afghanistan border in its database. But Pakistani leaders say they provided the United States and NATO with the locations of all 997 border checkpoints manned by its Frontier Corps.

The base was hit by U.S. fire June 10 as soldiers were pursuing Taliban insurgents who had crossed into Afghanistan. Unnamed officials told the newspaper the insurgents may have mingled with the Pakistani fighters as they fled into Pakistan's North West Frontier province.

Pakistan initially called the deaths of their 11 fighters a "cowardly" and "unprovoked" attack but has since agreed to disagree with the United States over what happened, the Times said.

"Yes, there are disagreements over the facts," an unnamed Pakistani official told the Times. "But playing this down is the only way forward. This is a relationship that Pakistan does not want to spoil."