Coalition friendly fire incident kills nine Afghan soldiers
Officials say American troops may have been involved in the accidental bombing of an Afghan army checkpoint.
In the most lethal "friendly fire" incident in more than a year, Afghan authorities said coalition forces accidentally bombed an Afghan army checkpoint Wednesday, killing nine Afghan soldiers and injuring three others.
U.S. military officials acknowledged in a statement that American troops "may have mistakenly killed or injured" Afghan soldiers in Khost province, southeast of the capital, Kabul. The incident is under investigation, said a spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews.
The strike took place before dawn, as a U.S. convoy was returning to base from a nighttime mission. The American statement suggested that the convoy had previously come under fire, saying it was "involved in multiple engagements."
Friendly fire incidents involving Afghan and Western forces are relatively rare, but do occur, sometimes involving multiple fatalities. Often, darkness is a contributing factor.
Sixteen months ago, U.S. troops on an overnight operation encountered an Afghan police patrol, which mistook them for Taliban fighters. Seven Afghan police were killed in the resulting firefight.
Twice in the last month, Afghan police fired on American troops in apparently deliberate attacks that left two U.S. soldiers dead. Insurgents are believed to have infiltrated some Afghan police units.
Mindful of tensions and mistrust that arise from such incidents, Western commanders have worked hard to try to improve coordination between the armies. American troops have the lead role in training Afghan security forces.
The circumstances of Wednesday's strike suggested that U.S. troops may have been unaware of the presence of the Afghan army checkpoint, which had been in place on the main highway for 10 days, according to the governor of Khost, Arsallah Jamal.
He said Afghan soldiers had done nothing to provoke the attack.
"One thing is very clear, the [Afghan troops] did not fire at the coalition forces," he said. "They tried to flash their vehicles' lights to show they were friendly forces, but unfortunately this did not work."
Jamal said he had already received a condolence call from a ranking U.S. military official, and had been told that a U.S. military delegation would carry out a detailed probe of the incident.
"As far as I'm concerned, this is a pure accident, a technical mistake," he said.
The nine deaths were confirmed by Afghanistan's Defense Ministry. A spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, who said the airstrike took place at about 2 a.m. in the Sayed Kheil district.
Elsewhere, U.S. forces announced Wednesday that a Taliban leader, Mullah Ghafar, had been killed in a precision airstrike on Monday in Helmand province, in Afghanistan's insurgent-ridden south.
Most regular Western troops in the province are British, but U.S. special forces often aid in tracking and targeting senior Taliban figures.
The U.S. military said Ghafar was identified as he was getting into a vehicle, which was subsequently hit. U.S. forces said Ghafar had been responsible for a number of attacks on Western forces in the south.
In Uruzgan province, also in the south, Afghan authorities said 35 insurgents had been killed in two days of fighting that ended early Wednesday. The provincial police chief, Juma Gul Himat, said three Afghan policemen were killed in the fighting as well.
King is a Times staff writer.
laura.king@latimes.com
