Coalition air strike kills nine Afghan soldiers Thursday, 23 October 2008 01:12

KABUL • An air strike by international forces killed nine Afghan soldiers early yesterday, the defence ministry said, in the latest deadly military error to hit Afghanistan's fight against Taliban militants. KABUL • An air strike by international forces killed nine Afghan soldiers early yesterday, the defence ministry said, in the latest deadly military error to hit Afghanistan's fight against Taliban militants.
Foreign helicopters accidentally targetted the soldiers in the troubled eastern province of Khost as they worked to provide security for voters registering for elections, officials said. "In an international military air strike at 2am ... nine members of the Afghan National Army were martyred and three others were injured," a defence ministry statement said. The condition of one of the wounded was serious.
A spokesman for the US Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, announced a joint investigation into the incident. "We are getting together with Ministry of Defence officials to sort out exactly what happened. A joint investigation will be conducted to get to the truth," he said.
Colonel Mohammad Gul, a spokesman for the Afghan army deployment in the region, said the soldiers were helping foreign forces provide security for the registration of voters for next year's presidential polls. "Foreign forces' military helicopters mistakenly targetted our soldiers. Nine soldiers were killed and three others were injured," Gul said.
There are about 60,000 international soldiers deployed under NATO and a separate coalition led by the United States in Afghanistan to help defeat an insurgency waged by Taliban and other militants.
The ministry did not specify which deployment was responsible for the strike. Most of the foreign troops operating in Khost, near the Pakistani border, are US forces operating under NATO and most air strikes are carried out by US aircraft.
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 southwestern province of Farah, with both side 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.
In August, Karzai called for a review of regulations for international forces in the war-torn country after 90 civilians were killed in US strikes in a western village, according Afghan officials and residents.
A US military investigation concluded that at least 33 civilians, including a dozen children, were killed in the strike along with 22 fighters.
There have also been incidents in which Afghan troops have killed their international counterparts.
In the most recent, an Afghan policemen shot dead a US soldier in Paktika province, which neighbours Khost, on October 16. In September, another Afghan police officer killed a NATO soldier after an argument in the same region.
Violence linked to an insurgency led by the Taliban, which was in government between 1996 and 2001, is at its highest this year.
Meanwhile, troops killed and wounded dozens of "enemies of the people" on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan defence ministry said in a separate statement.
35 Taliban, three policemen killed
KANDAHAR • About 35 Taliban militants and three policemen were killed after about 100 insurgents attacked a district centre in southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said yesterday.
Heavy fighting started late on Tuesday and lasted into early yesterday after the rebels launched the attack in troubled Uruzgan province, police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. "More than 100 Taliban launched an attack to capture the district of Dih Rahwud. Our police bravely resisted and killed 35 Taliban whose bodies are left in the area," Hemat said.
"Three of our policemen were also martyred and nine others were injured in the fighting," he said.
International military war planes were called in to help the Afghan forces, he said. US and NATO forces in Afghanistan could not immediately confirm their involvement. The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are fighting to take back power from the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
The insurgency has picked up pace in the past three years, despite the presence of about 60,000 international troops helping Afghan forces to face a rebellion that Afghan officials say is now supported by militants arriving from Iraq.

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