Friendly fire kills U.S. troops in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Five American special operations troops were killed by a U.S. airstrike called in to help them after they were ambushed by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, in one of the deadliest friendly fire incidents in nearly 14 years of war, officials said Tuesday.

The deaths were a fresh reminder that the conflict was nowhere near over for some U.S. troops, who will keep fighting for at least two more years.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the five American troops were killed Monday "during a security operation in southern Afghanistan."

"Investigators are looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause," Kirby said in a statement.

In Washington, two U.S. Defense officials said the five Americans were special-ops force members, but the officials were not more specific. They spoke on condition of anonymity because notification of the families of the five had not yet been completed.

The deaths occurred during a joint operation of Afghan and NATO forces in the Arghandab district of southern Zabul province ahead of Saturday's presidential runoff election, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rooghlawanay. After the operation was over, he said, the troops came under attack from the Taliban and called in air support.

"Unfortunately, five NATO soldiers and one Afghan army officer were killed mistakenly by NATO airstrike," he said.

There was no way to independently confirm his information. The coalition would not comment, and NATO headquarters in Brussels also declined to comment.

However, special-operations forces often come under fire on joint operations and are responsible for calling in air support when needed. Because of constraints placed by President Hamid Karzai, such airstrikes are usually called "in extremis," when troops fear they are about to be killed.

Airstrikes have long caused tensions between the Afghan government and coalition forces, especially when they cause civilian casualties.

Airstrikes that kill coalition soldiers are far less common. One of the worst such incidents occurred in April 2002, when four Canadian soldiers were killed by an American F-16 jet fighter that dropped a bomb on a group of troops during a night firing exercise in southern Kandahar. In April 2004, in one of the most highly publicized cases, former National Football League player Pat Tillman was killed by coalition fire while serving in an Army Ranger unit.

Relatives identified two of the five killed Monday.

One was Aaron Toppen, 19, of Mokena, Ill., who had deployed to Afghanistan in March, a month after his father died, said a family spokeswoman, Jennie Swartz.

Justin Helton, 25, of Beaver, Ohio, who specialized in explosives and was based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., was also killed, a cousin said. Helton, she said, had been in Afghanistan about two months and was engaged to be married.