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KABUL – Afghan officials said Saturday a NATO airstrike inadvertently killed several Afghan soldiers and policemen a day earlier in northwestern Afghanistan.
The airstrike took place amid fighting in Badghis province as Afghan and U.S. troops were looking for two U.S. paratroopers who disappeared Wednesday.
The U.S. military said the soldiers on the search operation came under an attack that killed four Afghan soldiers and two policemen, and wounded five U.S. soldiers and 17 Afghan security forces.
Afghan officials said the troops were killed in a NATO airstrike that hit a coalition base in the area or hit near it. The district’s mayor, Abdul Shukor, put the death toll at 20 – six Afghan soldiers, two policemen and 12 civilians. Shukor described the area of the bombing as a military checkpoint.
A NATO statement said authorities were investigating whether “close air support” caused some of the casualties. A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Vician, earlier Saturday said the casualties resulted from a “hostile engagement, not an accident.” He said he had no reports of civilian casualties in the area.
The Taliban said earlier that the two soldiers had drowned and that it had found the bodies. A parliament member from Badghis, Amir Tawakal, said the soldiers drowned while fishing. U.S. officials did not confirm that the soldiers had died.
Vician said he did not know whether the two 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers were on foot or in vehicles when they disappeared, but that he thought they were part of a group of soldiers.
