KABUL, Afghanistan — 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 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 Khowst province, southeast of the capital, Kabul. The incident is under investigation, said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a spokesman.
Meanwhile, a roadside blast struck a vehicle carrying coalition troops in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three members and wounding a fourth, the coalition said. Its statement did not provide the exact location of the attack or the nationalities of the victims. The strike took place before dawn as a U.S. convoy was returning from a nighttime mission. The American statement suggested that the convoy had come under fire previously, saying it was “involved in multiple engagements.”
Friendly-fire incidents involving Afghan and Western forces are relatively rare but do occur, sometimes involving 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, the last incident with such a high death toll.
Twice in the past 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 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 might have been unaware of the presence of the Afghan army checkpoint, which had been in place on the main highway in the area for 10 days, according to Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khowst. 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 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 investigation.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is a pure accident, a technical mistake,” he said.
Elsewhere, U.S. forces announced Wednesday that a Taliban leader, Mullah Ghafar, had been killed in an airstrike Monday in Helmand province, and Sharif Agha, a Taliban commander suspected of masterminding suicide attacks and roadside bombings, was killed Tuesday in Oruzgan province.
