9 Afghan police killed by accident
They fought Afghan and U.S. troops after each mistook the others for insurgents, officials said.
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces killed nine Afghan police officers yesterday, calling in air strikes and fighting on the ground for four hours after each side mistook the other for militants, Afghan officials said.
In a separate incident, NATO said it accidentally killed at least four Afghan civilians Saturday night. A NATO soldier also was killed in the east.
The two cases of accidental killings could further undercut popular support for the government and foreign forces operating in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with the United States and other nations fighting resurgent militants to avoid civilian casualties.
In the western province of Farah near the Iranian border, a convoy of foreign forces showed up in Anar Dara district and clashed with Afghan police, killing nine, the provincial deputy governor, Younus Rasuli, said.
He said the foreign troops had not told local officials that they were coming and that the police thought they were enemy fighters. The two sides fought from about midnight until 4 a.m. yesterday, and the foreign forces used air strikes, Rasuli said.
The U.S.-led coalition said it was investigating the report. It said its forces, along with Afghan troops, had retaliated in defense against "a non-uniformed hostile force."
"The combined patrol signaled their status as coalition forces but continued to receive fire," a military statement said. "Coalition forces then returned small-arms fire and engaged the enemy with precision close air support."
In eastern Paktika province, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it killed at least four civilians Saturday night when its troops fired two mortar rounds that landed nearly half a mile short of their target. NATO said it was investigating whether three other civilians also were killed in the Barmal district.
"ISAF deeply regrets this accident, and an investigation as to the exact circumstances of this tragic event is now under way," NATO said in a statement.
The alliance said it was providing medical aid to four civilians who were wounded.
Also yesterday, a NATO soldier was killed during fighting in the eastern Khost province, the alliance said in a statement. NATO did not identify the soldier's nationality, but most of the troops in that area are American.
Afghanistan faces intensifying militancy nearly seven years after the U.S.-led invasion of the country ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement from power.
More than 2,500 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year in the country, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures. Most have been militants, but the total includes hundreds of ordinary citizens.
