Pakistani official: ‘We are rethinking of our relationship with the U.S.’

The fallout over a Pentagon investigation that found lack of trust between U.S. and Pakistan was a leading factor in a deadly airstrike mounted Friday with a senior Pakistani government official saying his government was rethinking its relationship with Washington.

Relations between the two countries – and their militaries – have severely eroded in recent months, beginning in May with a secret raid by American commandos that killed Osama bin Laden and culminating with a U.S. airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

Details of the Pentagon investigation announced a day earlier found that U.S. forces acted in self-defense after being fired upon in Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, though it cited “inadequate coordination” in the incident. Pakistan has said that it was the other way around – that their forces were attacked first.

“Currently, we don’t care much about these findings, and we will see if a proper reaction is necessary once the actual report comes out,” said a senior Pakistani government official with knowledge of the workings of the relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

“What’s more important is that the rethinking of our relationship with the U.S. is under consideration by our Parliament, the official said. “There is a larger picture here we are keeping our eyes on, versus just this American report. For example, will we allow NATO supplies through Pakistan?”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly speak on the issue.

The official said the Pakistani government’s position is to not take “these small details seriously,”

“Larger, strategic decisions will be more important in the coming future, versus just debating about who shot at who first,” the official said.

Already Pakistan has ordered the U.S. military to vacate a base in the southwest province of Balochistan that it used to launch drone strikes along the Afghan border, though American officials have said it was unlikely to have an effect on its operations.

The incident began on November 26 when U.S. troops heading toward an Afghan town near the Pakistani border came under attack, and what followed over the next few hours were three firefights while military liaisons from both countries tried to determine whether there were Pakistani forces in the area, said Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Clark, who led the investigation.

Clark told reporters Thursday that there were critical missteps by both sides that could be blamed on mistrust.

At one point, about an hour into the confrontation, the Pakistani military reported to the Americans that they were under attack, Clark said. When asked for their location, the Pakistanis didn’t want to give their location up, arguing that the coalition forces must know where they were because they were firing at them, he said.

Meanwhile, coalition forces who had the exact coordinates of where their troops were only gave the Pakistanis a general location of where they were, Clark said. Because of an inaccurate map, the description the coalition forces gave was not accurate, he said.

In a statement, the defense department said it regretted the loss of life and that it would work to learn from the mistakes.

The Department of State also expressed regret for the loss of life.

“We’ve expressed our deep regret for the loss of life and for the lack of proper coordination between the U.S. and Pakistani forces that contributed to these losses, and we do accept responsibility for the mistakes that we made,” Mark Toner, a deputy State Department spokesman told reporters Thursday.

Toner reiterated the investigation findings, saying “there was no deliberate or intentional effort here to target … members or places that belong to the Pakistani military.”

The expressions of regret are likely to do little to satisfy Pakistan, which has insisted the attacks were deliberate.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN Thursday their country’s investigation into the incident contradicts the findings of the U.S. report.

“Every Pakistani soldier knows that the Taliban doesn’t have gunships and AC-130s,” one high-ranking official close to the investigation said. “But that’s not the point. The point is that they contend that we fired first. They’re wrong. They fired first. We responded. And then they called in the air support, and proceeded to attack us at length.”

A second intelligence official called the Pentagon findings “strange,” saying they “contradict what we have communicated so far to the Americans. This report is not good news.”

The officials declined to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss security issues.

CNN’s Chelsea J. Carter and journalist Wajahat S. Khan contributed to this report.