Washington: The Pentagon on Tuesday said that it has expressed "deepest regret" on the loss of life due to cross border fire on November 26, but declined to comment if there was any move by the US to apologise for the incident that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Commenting on a New York Times report which claimed the US is considering to apologise to Pakistan for the incident, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said, "I am not going to comment specifically on that report. As you know, in December we expressed our deepest regret to those who were killed and in the November 25/26 border incident," "We expressed our deepest regret to the Government of Pakistan, in fact to the people of Pakistan," he said. "I am not going to comment on that specific report and would leave it there," Little said responding to questions on The New York Times article which said that the US is considering apologising to Pakistan for the November 26 incident.

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"The State Department is supporting a proposal circulating in the administration for the United States to issue a formal apology for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in the November 26 airstrike by American gunships," The New York Times said in a news story today.

According to it, General Mattis, is expected to travel to Pakistan later this month to meet Gen. Kayani, to discuss the investigations of November 26 incident, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode. The Pentagon did not confirm the report.

"I do not have any visits to announce today. We always look forward to meeting our Pakistani counterparts," Little said when asked about it. Little also said that there is no new updates on the closed NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.
"No new updates," he said, when asked about The New York Times report that these supply routes could soon be opened. The report said Pakistani officials are saying that they will soon reopen the NATO supply route to Afghanistan, which has been shut down since November last year. Pakistan is expected to seek an unspecified tariff on all goods passing through, the newspaper said. American officials say they are open to paying, but point out that the alternative northern supply route into Afghanistan, through Central Asia, has picked up much of the slack in recent months, it said.
PTI