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Petraeus disturbed by confusion over hostage death

16 October 2010 02:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APAÅŸ General David Petraeus said on Friday it was "disturbing" that the first account of the death of a British hostage in Afghanistan during a rescue attempt by American forces had turned out to be wrong, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The first report said Linda Norgrove had been killed last Friday when one of her captors detonated a suicide belt, but it emerged on Monday that she may have been accidentally killed by a grenade thrown by one of her American rescuers.
Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, seized the opportunity of a visit to London to call Norgrove’s father to offer his condolences and an update on the investigation into how the 36-year-old aid worker died.
"It was disturbing, clearly, not to have the correct facts the morning after the operation was conducted, and to be provided those later after the taskforce commander conducted further examination including watching six different videos of the operation," he said.
In London to see Prime Minister David Cameron, Petraeus said he could not jump to conclusions over Norgrove’s death, but added "we obviously have suspicions."
He said a sharper image of the rescue attempt had been obtained after the video was transferred from a hard drive.
"It was very clear that there was a throwing motion, and an explosion followed that, and ... a grenade had been deployed."
Norgrove was abducted on September 26 along with three Afghan co-workers during a visit to a project in a remote part of Kunar province, a lawless region bordering Pakistan.
An autopsy was due to be conducted on Norgrove’s body, Petraeus said.
"My understanding is that will be undertaken very shortly and that is a critical element of this, because one cannot jump to conclusions about what may have been the cause of death just yet," he said.