An errant US airstrike confirmed by the Pentagon killed at least 12 Afghan National Police officers and wounded two, Helmand provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Safi said yesterday.
The death toll was determined after a site inspection of the compound in the Gereshk district, he said.
However, Helmand police spokesman Salam Afghan provided a different death toll.
“In the strike, 16 Afghan policemen were killed, including two commanders. Two other policemen were wounded,” he said.
Helmand provincial governor spokesman Omar Zwak confirmed the strike and gave the same account.
The US in a statement confirmed that the airstrike on the Security Forces compound happened during a US-supported operation against Taliban insurgents in the area.
In the statement the US offered its condolences to the families of the security forces who were killed.
While much of Helmand Province is under the control of the Taliban, Afghan national security forces have been waging fierce battles to retake territory.
NATO and US troops are in Helmand to assist Afghan troops.
Safi told reporters in a telephone interview that the dead were police officers who were operating with the army in the area.
He said they had recaptured the post from the Taliban when the airstrike occurred.
NOT IN UNIFORM
Helmand Governor Hayatullah Hayat said it was believed the police officers were not in uniform, which might have resulted in mistakenly identifying them as Taliban fighters.
Meanwhile, Badakhshan Province Governor Ahmad Faisal Bigzad yesterday said that 11 police were killed and another six wounded during a roaring battle with Taliban insurgents in the remote Tagab region.
Bigzad said another 20 members of a local police force were missing following Friday’s firefight.
It was not immediately clear if they had been kidnapped or had escaped.
The area in which the fighting occurred is tucked inside a mountainous region where access is restricted and telephone contact is erratic.
In western Farah Province, a gun battle between the Afghan army and Taliban insurgents left six Afghan soldiers dead and 12 Taliban killed, said Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor.
The five-hour battle on Friday occurred after Taliban insurgents stormed a compound of the Afghan National Security Force in Pusht Rod District, he said.
A Taliban statement claimed a victory and said 16 Afghan soldiers were killed.
Taliban have in the past exaggerated their successes and the remoteness of the area made it impossible to independently verify.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not