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2011-11-02 India-Pakistan

Pakistani militiaman who shot US soldier acted alone: Pentagon

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Posted by Fred 2011-11-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1 1.4 billion Muslims: each, and every one, acting alone.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-11-02 03:47|| 2011-11-02 03:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Even the NY Times isn't stupid enough to believe this. Pakistanis Tied to 2007 Border Attack on Americans
American officials familiar with Pakistan say that the attack fit a pattern. The Pakistanis often seemed to retaliate for losses they had suffered in an accidental attack by United States forces with a deliberate assault on American troops, most probably to maintain morale among their own troops or to make a point to the Americans that they could not be pushed around, said a former American military officer who served in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The attack in 2007 came after some of the worst skirmishes along the ill-marked border. By 2007 Taliban insurgents, who used Pakistan as a haven with the support of Pakistans military and intelligence establishment, were crossing the border, frequently in sight of Pakistani border posts, and challenging the Afghan government with increasing boldness. American and Afghan forces had just fought and killed a group of 25 militants near the border in early May.

To stem the flow of militants, the Afghan government was building more border posts, including one at Gawi, in Jaji District, one of the insurgents main crossing points, according to Rahmatullah Rahmat, then the governor of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan.

Pakistani forces objected to the new post, claiming it was on Pakistani land, and occupied it by force, killing 13 Afghans. Over the following days dozens were killed as Afghan and Pakistani forces traded mortar rounds and moved troops and artillery up to the border. Afghanistans president, Hamid Karzai, began to talk of defending the border at all costs, said Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the senior American general in Afghanistan at the time.

The border meeting was called, and a small group of Americans and Afghans 12 men in total flew by helicopters to Teri Mangal, just inside Pakistan, to try to resolve the dispute.

Then, just as the American and Afghan officials were climbing into vehicles provided to take them the short distance to a helicopter landing zone, a Pakistani soldier opened fire with an automatic rifle, pumping multiple rounds from just 5 or 10 yards away into an American officer, Maj. Larry J. Bauguess Jr., killing him almost instantly. An operations officer with the 82nd Airborne Division from North Carolina, Major Bauguess, 36, was married and the father of two girls, ages 4 and 6.

An American soldier immediately shot and killed the attacker, but at the same instant several other Pakistanis opened fire from inside the classrooms, riddling the group and the cars with gunfire, according to the two senior Afghan commanders who were there. Both escaped injury by throwing themselves out of their car onto the ground.

I saw the American falling and the Americans taking positions and firing, said Brig. Gen. Muhammad Akram Same, the Afghan Army commander in eastern Afghanistan at the time. We were not fired on from one side, but from two, probably three sides.

Posted by Eohippus Phater7165 2011-11-02 08:54|| 2011-11-02 08:54|| Front Page Top

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