ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The United States forces used an F-16 aircraft to drop the 500-pound laser-guided bomb on an abandoned madressah (seminary) in North Waziristan on Dec 29, investigations have revealed.

Sources told Dawn on Friday that the US forces radioed a request for air support within 24 minutes of an armed clash between a few Pakistani post guards and US soldiers on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Informed officials said the US F-16 targeted the madressah which was completely destroyed after the attack. The use of the precision bomb by the US forces was to avoid collateral damage, sources maintained, adding, however, that the attack was to intimidate and deter the Frontier Corps men.

Investigations have revealed that the clash between the Pakistan-US forces occurred in the 300-metre ‘no-man’s land’ that lies between the Shikan Afghan post and the Wana Pakistani post straddling along the Durand Line.

The clash was triggered when Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) men detected two free-flight 107mm calibre Chinese rockets in the ‘no-man’s land’. They moved towards the rockets to defuse them.

Armed US soldiers at the Shikan base also moved towards the rockets at the same time, vigorously gesturing to the Pakistani FC men to back off from what is Pakistani territory.

Reportedly, the gestures and the body language of the armed US soldiers angered the FC men and one of them decided to shoot at the American soldiers instead of retreating. The shootout resulted in injuries to one American soldier.

The wounded American soldier was flown to Germany soon after. He is reported to be recovering. No other injury or casualty was reported.

While the Americans claim that there were 11 Pakistani post guards involved in the Pakistan-US clash, official findings put the number at two.

Pakistani authorities are currently interrogating the FC man who shot the American soldier, Dawn learnt through official sources.

Meanwhile, sections within Pakistani official circles are criticizing the asymmetrical response of the US servicemen to the ground-based shootout incident.