By ,
Published December 09, 2015
A more-detailed picture is emerging of what happened late last Friday and early Saturday when NATO airstikes hit what later turned out to be Pakistani soldiers. The U.S. military had asked a Pakistani military rep for permission to fire on two outposts on the border with Afghanistan last Friday, under the assumption that NATO forces were under attack.
“The process worked,” one source told Fox News. “They called the coordination center and gave the Pakistani contact specific coordinates and were told there was no Pakistani military in the vicinity.”
The following is a timeline of events, according to senior U.S. military sources:
Friday, 11:11 p.m. -- The U.S. military patrol composed of about 20 Special Operators leading 80 or so Afghan Special Operations Forces came under fire.
11:56 p.m. -- They reached out to a Pakistani colonel at a joint border coordination center and asked if Pakistani military had forces in the vicinity of where the fire came from. They were told they did not and were given permission to engage.
11:56 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. Saturday -- The first of 3 airstrikes took place.
12:15 a.m. -- They were told that Pakistani military had been engaged. A U.S. AC-130 gunship and two Apache helicopters were used in the airstrikes.
12:43 to 12:55 a.m. -- They fired two more times in a matter of 12 minutes. According to multiple sources, the Pakistani military fired first and this was not a “deliberate attack” on Pakistani forces. It also was not done in isolation. There are 3 border coordination centers manned by Pakistani, US and Afghan forces.
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/timeline-mistaken-nato-strike-in-pakistan