An air strike by international forces mistakenly killed nine Afghan soldiers yesterday, the defense ministry said, as police reported they had killed 35 Taliban who tried to capture a district center.
The US military admitted coalition forces “may have mistakenly killed and injured” Afghan soldiers in Khost Province in a case of mistaken identity and said it was investigating. The Afghan government condemned the deaths, saying morale was being sapped by such incidents.
Foreign helicopters accidentally targeted the soldiers, who were deployed to provide security for voters registering for elections, said Colonel Mohammad Gul, a spokesman for the Afghan army deployment in the region.
Nine US-trained Afghan soldiers died and three were wounded in the 2am attack, the defense ministry said.
“The national defense ministry condemns the incident in the strongest terms,” it said in a statement.
“We promise the people of Afghanistan and the army to seriously pursue the incident, so the culprits are brought to justice and are tried under laws in place,” the statement said.
“Such tragic and painful incidents would weaken the morale of the national security forces and could hamper the national army development,” it said.
It was the latest deadly military error to hit Afghanistan’s growing fight against extremist Taliban militants with international forces accused of relying too heavily on air power, often resulting in the deaths of civilians.
A spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, announced a joint investigation.
“There was an incident and we are getting together with Ministry of Defense officials to sort out exactly what happened,” he said.
A statement from his office said coalition troops may have caused the casualties by mistake.
“As a coalition forces convoy was returning from a previous operation, they were involved in multiple engagements,” the statement said, adding: “Initial reports from troops on the ground indicate that this may be a case of mistaken identity on both sides.”
There are about 60,000 international soldiers deployed under NATO and a separate coalition led by the US in Afghanistan to help defeat an insurgency waged by Taliban and other militants.
The soldiers’ deaths are the latest in a series of wayward air attacks, which have also killed civilians and police and infuriated public opinion.
In July nine Afghan policemen were killed in strikes called in after troops clashed with police in the Farah Province, with both sides mistaking the other for Taliban fighters.
The US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has complained that the international forces do not properly coordinate their operations with their Afghan counterparts, sometimes resulting in mistakes.
He called for a review of regulations for international forces in the country after 90 civilians were killed in US strikes in a western village in August, according to tolls from Afghan and UN investigations.
A US military investigation concluded that at least 33 civilians, including a dozen children, were killed in the strike along with 22 fighters.
Meanwhile, about 100 militants attacked a district center in Uruzgan Province late on Tuesday but were repelled in a battle that lasted into early yesterday and left about 35 Taliban and three policemen dead, police said.
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