Pakistan returns wreckage of U.S. helicopter

The wreckage of a U.S. radar-evading helicopter that was abandoned by U.S. Navy SEAL team after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan has been returned to the United States, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy SEAL team blew up the Black Hawk helicopter after it was damaged due to hard landing during the raid. The U.S. Navy SEAL team wanted to keep sensitive U.S. technology out of enemy hands, U.S. officials said.

The wreckage was returned to U.S. over the weekend, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.

Pakistan has promised to return the wreckage of the helicopter as a step to rebuild trust between the two countries that was damaged due to the raid, Senator John Kerry said during his trip to Islamabad on 16 May.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official said, returning the helicopter fell far short of what it would take to recover the broken ties.

It's too little, too late to change the twist in U.S.-Pakistani relations, Riedel said.

Before Osama's death, mutual ties between both the countries had reached a low point.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on Tuesday, acknowledged the trust deficit between the two countries.

Pakistan is very important, because of its nuclear weapons and because of the importance of stability in the subcontinent, Gates told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank.