Reading audio
Kabul
07 November 2009
The Afghan government says a NATO air strike has mistakenly killed
seven members of the Afghan security forces in Badghis province.
NATO
and Afghan forces are investigating the incident in western Afghanistan
that killed members of the country's army and police.
Earlier,
NATO said 25 international and Afghan soldiers were wounded in the
area. Officials initially blamed "insurgent activity" for the
casualties, but later said it was possible the soldiers were hit by
friendly fire.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman Zamary Bashary tells VOA that this is a sad incident.
"We
have lost forces that are fighting in order to bring security for
Afghanistan. But such attacks will never deter our partnership [with
international forces]. This is clear that this was a mistake," he said.
He
added that incidents such as this one are rare, especially after the
United States imposed new restrictions on air strikes in an effort to
avoid civilian casualties.
"The new strategy actually has worked, and it has reduced the number of civilian casualties," he said.
The troops were conducting an operation to find two missing U.S. soldiers who are believed to have drowned.
Local
police officials say the two soldiers were swept away Wednesday while
trying to save supply boxes that fell into the water after being
air-dropped.
This year has been the deadliest for international troops in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban-led government in 2001.
Category