NATO airstrike kills seven Afghan security forces members

November 7, 2009

A NATO airstrike has killed at least seven members of the Afghan security forces in the western province of Badghis on Friday, according to the Afghan defence ministry. "Due to a NATO forces air strike on November 6 in Badghis province seven Afghan security personnel (both Afghan army and national police) were martyred and also some were wounded," the ministry stated. NATO and Afghan authorities are investigating but NATO officials have yet to comment.

Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman, Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said that the airstrike hit a base housing NATO and Afghan troops. According to reports four soldiers and three policemen died.

The announcement comes amidst Friday's investigation in Badghis, where more than 25 joint troops sustained injuries whilst searching for two missing United States paratroopers. According to an anonymous Western military official they were injured by friendly fire.

This however has been denied by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, of the US Air Force, who stated to AFP that "[w]e have nothing to confirm friendly fire." He added that "[n]o ISAF members were killed," and that the five ISAF soldiers who suffered injuries were Americans.