U.S., Pakistan To Probe Deadly Airstrike

The United States said Friday it will conduct a joint investigation with Pakistan of an anti-terrorism mission along the Afghan border that Pakistan says killed 11 of its soldiers.

The two countries have agreed to look into the matter together in hopes of preventing anything similar from happening again, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said after a meeting between the top diplomats for both countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi that the U.S. regrets the incident, Boucher said. The two are in Paris for a fundraising conference devoted to Afghanistan.

"We need to find out how and why it happened - what exactly happened," Boucher said, "get to the bottom of it jointly and then figure out how to make sure we avoid this in the future."

Senior western diplomats have said the U.S. attack was provoked by the presence of a group of Taliban fighters close to the military post at the time of the attack, reports CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad.

One western diplomat based in Islamabad told CBS News on condition of anonymity that "this was just not a U.S.-targeted aimed at Pakistani troops. This was an accident. The Pakistanis got caught in the cross fire."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that he invited Pakistan and Afghanistan to be part of a U.S. investigation into the incident.

The U.S. and Pakistan remained at odds in their versions of the clash on the Afghan border. An insurgent attack inside Afghanistan prompted American planes to drop bombs.

Boucher said the U.S. is not accepting responsibility for the deaths, and U.S. officials have disputed Pakistan's account of the incident, which took place Tuesday night.

Both sides said their cooperation against terrorism will continue.

"They agreed to continue their cooperation in their joint fight against terrorism," said a statement from Qureshi's office in Islamabad.

Pakistan condemned the bombing and some leaders suggested the government should rethink its close alliance with Washington.