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US air strike kills five Afghan cops
 A US air strike killed five Afghan policemen during a joint operation against insurgents, officials said on Thursday, in an incident likely to further strain ties between the allies.Afghan and US troops called for aerial support while fighting in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the US-led Nato coalition said, with local officials reporting special forces were reacting to a Taleban attack on a police post. "We can confirm five Afghan police were accidently killed yesterday (Wednesday)," Lieutenant-Colonel Will Griffin, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told AFP. "It was a combined ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) and ISAF operation and it was a combined call for supporting aerial fire which resulted in the deaths of five Afghan policemen. "Our condolences go out to the families of the policemen who lost their lives." Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial administration, told AFP that Taleban fighters had attacked a police checkpoint in Bati Kot district late on Wednesday. "Special forces went to assist the police. They called in air support. An air strike was conducted but hit the police post mistakenly, and as a result the officers are dead and two others are wounded." Abdulzai said that the rebels also suffered casualties but he gave no further details. Bati Kot district is on the main road from the capital Kabul to neighbouring Pakistan -- a key transport route as Nato forces withdraw military equipment from Afghanistan. Posted by: Steve White 2013-08-02 |
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