*KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN: *An apparent case of “friendly fire” between Afghanand US troops led to an airstrike which killed five Afghan soldiers,officials said Wednesday, with the defence ministry citing a “lack ofproper coordination”.
The incident occurred Wednesday when a US and Afghan patrol came under firenear an Afghan army post on the outskirts of Tarin Kot, the capital ofUruzgan province, NATO spokesperson in Kabul told *AFP*.
They called in airstrikes which hit the army post, killing five andseriously wounding a further 10 Afghan soldiers, said Karim Karimi, deputyhead of the Uruzgan provincial council.
“As the American patrol approached the base, the ANA (Afghan National Army)soldiers probably thought it was the Taliban approaching them,” he told*AFP*.
Large parts of Uruzgan province remain under the Taliban control. In recentyears the militants have also made repeated incursions into the provincialcapital.
Seventeen soldiers had been at the post in total, with only two managing toflee unhurt, Karimi said.
The Afghan defence ministry confirmed the toll, saying that Afghan and USforces had been conducting a “joint operation” in the area at the time.
“Because of a lack of proper coordination of the army, an ANA post washit,” a ministry statement said, adding that an investigation is ongoing.
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The NATO spokesperson said the US had carriedout “precision self-defence air strikes on people firing on Afghan andAmerican forces conducting a ground movement near an ANA checkpoint inTarin Kot”.
“The strikes were conducted after Afghan and US forces came under effectivesmall arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire and requested air support inself-defence,” a spokesperson told *AFP* by email.
“Afghan and US forces attempted to de-escalate the situation but theycontinued to be fired upon. We are operating in a complex environment whereenemy fighters do not wear uniforms and use stolen military vehicles toattack government forces.”
“I counted that the planes were shooting at the base for some 30 minutes,”Haji Lal Agha, a local resident, told *AFP* over the phone.
Incidents known as “friendly fire” are not unheard of in Afghanistan, andhave bred deep mistrust between local and foreign forces.
In one of the deadliest, 16 Afghan policemen were killed in July 2017, whenthey were mistakenly targeted by US airstrikes in neighbouring Helmandprovince. – APP/AFP
