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Pakistan holds man in connection with U.S. clash
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have detained a man in a Pakistani border scout uniform in connection with a gun battle with U.S. forces that wounded a U.S. soldier, Pentagon officials said. U.S. forces discovered two BM-12 rockets Sunday along the Afghan-Pakistan border in an area that U.S. and Pakistani soldiers patrolled, according to a statement U.S. military officials in Afghanistan released Thursday. While U.S. troops watched a Pakistani explosive ordnance team defuse the rockets, a man dressed in a Pakistani border patrol uniform approached and requested permission to return to the Pakistani side, the statement said. When the man was about 50 feet (15 meters) from U.S. troops, he turned and opened fire on them, grazing one of the Americans' head, the statement said. The U.S. statement said some American troops retrieved the injured soldier for medical evacuation, while others -- along with Pakistani forces -- searched for the unidentified gunman and surrounded a nearby building, where a gun battle continued inside. The building is within the internationally recognized Afghan border, the statement said. The U.S. commander on the ground called for close-air support after it was clear no quick reinforcements would be coming. A Pentagon official said Pakistani forces then were "warned extensively" before a U.S. plane dropped a 500-pound bomb on the building. A Pentagon official said Pakistani forces caught the man who had fired on the U.S. soldiers and were holding him at an unknown area in Pakistan. It was not known whether there may have been additional gunmen inside the building. The wounded soldier, a member of a patrol operating near the border, was evacuated to a U.S. medical faculty in Germany and is listed in stable condition. Officials said he is expected to be released Friday. U.S. military officials deny reports that the United States bombed a Pakistani border unit. Lawmakers in northwestern Pakistan have strongly condemned the airstrike. CNN's Jamie McIntyre and Mike Mount contributed to this report.
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