- World News - Sport - Finance - Health - Entertainment - Technology -

LONDON: U.S.-
Pakistani relations are
at one of their worst
points in memory
after the NATO strike that killed
24 Pakistani troops, but can
recover, Washington's top
military officer said on
Monday.
General Martin Dempsey said
Pakistani anger was justified
given the loss of life. But he
declined to offer an apology,
saying during a trip to London
that he did not know enough
yet about the weekend
incident and that there was a
U.S. military investigation.
"They have reason to be
furious that they have 24
soldiers that are dead, and that
the ordinance that killed them
was the ordinance of a
partner," Dempsey, chairman of
the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs
of Staff, told Britain's ITV
News.
"I would certainly like to enlist
their patience in helping us
figure out what happened."
Pakistan's military said the
strike was unprovoked but a
Western official and an Afghan
security official who both
requested anonymity have
said NATO troops were
responding to fire from the
Pakistani side of the Afghan
border.
The killings have upended U.S.
attempts to ease a crisis in
relations with Islamabad,
which worsened after the
secret U.S. raid into Pakistan to
kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden in May. The incident also
threatened to undermine U.S.
efforts to stabilize the region
as Washington tries to wind
down the war in Afghanistan.
Asked about U.S.-Pakistani
relations, Dempsey said: "It
certainly does look like it's on
about as rocky a road as it has
been in my memory. And my
memory with Pakistan goes
back some 20 years or so."
Questioned whether the
situation was irretrievable, he
said: "No. I don't think so."
Dempsey branded the
relationship with Pakistan
"troubled" when he addressed
a forum in London.
Pakistan shut NATO supply
routes into Afghanistan in
retaliation for the killings.
Dempsey said the United States
could cope with the cut-off by
channeling supplies through
alternative routes.
"But I'd like to believe that we
could, over time, with
Pakistan's approval, restore
those lines of communication,"
he said.
Pakistan has also said it had
ordered the United States to
vacate a drone base in the
country.
Dempsey, who declined to
acknowledge the use of drones
at the base, said the move
would be a "serious act in
terms of our relationship."
"They want us to close the
base in Shamsi, the purpose of
which I leave to your
imagination. There are other
options for stationing aircraft
and other resources around
the region," Dempsey said.
Asked whether it was a serious
blow, he said: "It's a serious
blow in the sense that the
Pakistani government felt that
they needed to deny us the
use of a base that we've been
using for many years.
"And so it's serious in that
regard. It's not debilitating
militarily."
Dempsey said ties at senior
levels between the two
nations' militaries were still
strong at the "person-to-
person" level.
He said he had known
Pakistan's army chief General
Ashfaq Kayani since the two
studied together at the U.S.
Army Command and General
Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas in the
late 1980s.
Dempsey refrained from
repeating some of the
accusations about Pakistani
intelligence ties to anti-U.S.
militants that were cited by his
predecessor, Admiral Mike
Mullen. Mullen, before stepping
down in September, called the
Haqqani network a "veritable
arm" of Pakistan's ISI
intelligence service.
"Whether they are acting at
the behest or at the direction
of the ISI -- I'm not prepared to
say that," he said.