US admits to differences with Pak, Kabul over findings of May 21 air attack probe
19 Jul 2008, 1344 Hrs

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Washington, July 19 (ANI): The US State Department has admitted that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US had differences over the findings of investigation into the May 21 attack on a Pakistani outpost killing 11 personnel belonging to Frontier Corps (FC).

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that recently both Afghanistan and Pakistan cooperated with each other and with the Americans during a joint investigation into the incident.

"This was a cooperative effort. And while, you know, the findings differed, the outcomes were agreed upon," the Dawn quoted him as saying.

McCormack said that both Afghanistan and Pakistan had agreed to increase the resources dedicated to security personnel on both sides of the border for manning these outposts and improving communications. They also agreed to "help better delineate and demarcate the border in terms of agreeing upon where the line is and ways to monitor that line, so that's just one small example in which there is cooperation that is ongoing there.," he added.

The US official acknowledged that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was "difficult and it's tough to control that border". "And there are issues on the Pakistani side; there are issues on the Afghan side. And we are helping both sides work through those issues," he said.

Asked if the US-led alliance against terrorism in South Asia could fall apart because of differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr McCormack said: "I would expect that the communications between the Afghans and the Pakistanis will continue." (ANI)