Lahore, July 17: American officials have said that the killing of 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in air-strikes last month might have been prevented if the precise location of the border checkpoint was in the American database used to prevent accidental attacks on friendly forces.

A section of Pakistani officials also expressed the similar opinion, though ISPR spokesman termed the report as ‘factually incorrect’.

Briefing on an investigation into the air-strikes, American officials said: “Had the grid co-ordinates of the post on the border with Afghanistan been in the database, red flags would have immediately gone up when allied troops called in air-strikes during a border clash with insurgents.”

But, separately, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman said last evening that the report was factually incorrect. “The grid co-ordinates of all the posts on the Pakistani side of the border had been shared with the coalition forces at least thrice since 2003,” the paper quoted an AAP report as saying. (ANI)