American and Pakistani forces both made a series of mistakes that led to “tragic” US air strikes which killed 24 Pakistan soldiers last month, reflecting deep mutual mistrust between the two nations, said a US-led probe released yesterday.

The results of the joint US-NATO investigation portrayed a disastrous spate of errors and botched communications in the November 25-26 incident, in which each side failed to give the other precise information about their operational plans or the location of troops, officers said.

The probe found “inadequate coordination by US and Pakistani military officers” and acknowledged the Americans had relayed “incorrect mapping information” to a Pakistani liaison officer that gave the wrong location for Pakistani troops at border outposts, the Pentagon said in a statement. Three air strikes were ordered after US and Afghan commandos staging a night raid on a village near the Pakistani border came under heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, said Brigadier General Stephen Clark, who led the probe.

The US side did not tell the Pakistanis in advance about the raid near the border, and the Pakistanis had never notified NATO of new border posts in the area, he said.

The incident triggered outrage in Pakistan and aggravated tensions in an already-shaky relationship, prompting Islamabad to block crucial NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.