Washington: An ambush on US troops near a
Pakistani border town in 2007 that left an American officer dead was an act of a "rogue" Pakistani militiaman and not a
plot by the country's military, a Pentagon probe has said.
Army Major Larry J Bauguess was gunned down as he and
other American military officers headed towards helicopters
that would take them back across the border to Afghanistan
after a border flag meeting with Pakistani officers in the
frontier town of Teri Mengal.
Over the years, the shootout at American military
officers has been shrouded in mystery, amid speculation that
US officials were anxious to avoid growing tensions with
Pakistan.
The meeting was held to calm tensions along the border as
US special forces carried out hot pursuits of Taliban
militants right up to the Pak-Afghan border.
The Pentagon released unclassified excerpts from the
report, which concluded that Bauguess was shot at close range
with a volley of AK-47 automatic fire by a man donning a
uniform of Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a paramilitary
formation which is stationed facing the Afghan border.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 15:18