Nine policemen were killed in Afghanistan Sunday in international military air strikes called in when police and troops clashed after mistaking each other for Taliban, authorities said.
The "friendly fire" incident occurred about 1:30 am when Afghan and international soldiers moved into a district in the south-west without informing police who thought they were militants, the deputy governor of south-western Farah province said.
"An engagement took place, each side thinking the other was the Taliban," said Mohammad Younus Rasouli. The Afghan troops called for air support and military attack aircraft arrived and bombed a police post, he said. "Nine police were killed and five wounded," he said.
The US-led coalition, helping the Afghan government fight Taliban and other extremists, confirmed there had been an incident in Farah and said it was getting details. Rasouli said the police chief of Farah's Anar Dara district, on the border with Iran, was among the wounded and was in a serious condition.
The incident came as US presidential hopeful Barack Obama visited Afghanistan to assess international efforts against al Qaeda-linked extremist militants trying to overthrow the government.
He held talks with President Hamid Karzai that covered a range of issues from terrorism to Afghanistan's vast production of opium and heroin, presidential spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told reporters. Hamidzada also said the friendly fire in Farah was a "misunderstanding."
"The Afghan army were travelling with the international forces and then the Afghan army asked for the international air support and the unfortunate incident took place," he said.
There have been several such mistakes in Afghanistan's complicated battleground, where many local and international security forces are involved in a growing fight against Taliban insurgents.
ISAF meanwhile said Sunday that its soldiers had killed four Afghan civilians by accident when mortar rounds landed off target in the eastern province of Paktika near the border with Pakistan. It is just the latest incident in a series in which the international soldiers have killed civilians.
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