MANILA » A botched police raid that killed 44 elite officers and jeopardized a landmark peace deal in the Philippines involved blunders by officials from the field commander all the way up to President Benigno S. Aquino III, according to a report released Friday.

The investigative report by a specially created government panel describes a disastrous operation in which police radio batteries failed, ammunition was defective, officers were left stranded and exposed under enemy fire, and nearby military units with access to aircraft and artillery were kept in the dark about the details of the raid and unable to rescue the police.

The operation was "defective from the very beginning," said the report, which will serve as the official government account of the episode and will be used to mete out punishment to erring officials.

The Jan. 25 police operation involved about 400 elite officers who conducted an early morning raid in the small southern town of Mamasapano. The target of the raid was Zulkifli bin Hir, a Malaysian citizen and member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network who also goes by the name Marwan.

The police said that they killed Zulkifli during a gun battle in his hut but that they immediately received enemy fire from the surrounding area and had to flee. Unfamiliar with the terrain and without a clear, guarded escape path, 44 of the officers were killed while fighting their way out. At least four were shot in the head at close range, the report said.

The firefight involved Islamic extremists and other armed groups as well as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the government last March and is pledged to a cease-fire with government troops. Rebel leaders say that despite a cease-fire requirement that they be informed of police actions in advance, they were surprised by the raid and fought back in self-defense. They have denied that they knew Zulkifli was hiding in the area.

The police operation has generated widespread criticism of the peace deal, which is being debated by lawmakers for final approval. Several lawmakers have called for the deal to be scrapped or significantly changed because of a lack of trust in the rebels.

The report released Friday faulted Aquino for allowing a suspended police chief, Alan Purisima, a close friend of his, to participate in the planning and execution of the operation. The report also stated that Aquino "deliberately failed to inform" the acting police chief and the interior secretary, who oversees the police, of the operation.

The ground commander, Getulio Napenas, received the harshest criticism in the report. He was found to have concocted a faulty, rogue operation outside the police chain of command. His plan made optimistic assumptions about the operation’s success and failed to put into place measures to adequately protect the police forces on the ground, the report concluded.

The report provided few details on how the police officers confirmed the death of Zulkifli. It stated that he was shot in the chest by an officer, that photos were taken of him and that his finger was removed. It also said that the police had to flee the scene quickly because of incoming fire and that the body was not recovered. Zulkifli remains on the FBI’s most-wanted list as a living fugitive.

The report also said that the United States was not involved in the planning or execution of the raid, which had been rumored in the Philippines. The U.S. Embassy has said in statements that American involvement on the day of the raid was limited to assisting with medical evacuations of the wounded Philippine police officers.

But the report noted that the U.S. provided intelligence in the months leading up to the operation and real-time surveillance of the operation.

© 2015 The New York Times Company