A new revelation has suggested that Pakistan was involved in the 2007 ambush in Teri Mangal, in Afghanistan, that had left an American major killed and three American officers wounded, an allegation that could further strain the relationship between Washington and Islamabad following US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s Haqqani network comment against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The Afghan and American officers present at that time have revealed that the calculated attack, carried out by Pakistan, injured three American officers along with their Afghan interpreter. They also claimed that the Pakistanis opened fire on the Americans, who returned fire before escaping in a blood-soaked Black Hawk helicopter, ‘The New York Times’ reports.
The attack, in Teri Mangal on May 14, 2007, was kept under wraps by Washington.
The officers suggest that the attack was carried out to take revenge for Afghan or Pakistani deaths at American hands, the paper said.
On being pressed, Pakistan blamed militants for the attack.
“The official line covered over the details in the interests of keeping the relationship with Pakistan intact, “said a former United Nations official who served in eastern Afghanistan and was briefed on the events immediately after they occurred, said.
“At that time in May 2007, you had a lot of analysis pointing to the role of Pakistan in destabilizing that part of Afghanistan, and here you had a case in point, and for whatever reason it was glossed over,” he added.
American officials familiar with Pakistan say that the attack fitted 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, a former American military officer who served in both Afghanistan and Pakistan said.