A Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan accidentally killed five Afghan soldiers on Thursday, officials said, the latest incident likely to worsen already fraught relations between Kabul and the US-led coalition. Nato offered its condolences over the deaths and promised action to avoid further such mistakes, while President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said an investigation had been launched into the attack.
Karzai, who is currently on a state visit to Sri Lanka, has often used botched air strikes in the past to launch bitter criticism of the international military effort in Afghanistan. Civilian casualties have been one of the most sensitive issues of the war and a key reason cited by Karzai for not signing a deal that would allow several thousand US troops to stay in Afghanistan after this year. "At 3:30am this morning, due to a Nato air strike in Charkh district, Logar province, five service members of the Afghan national army were martyred and eight others were wounded," defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said on his Twitter account.
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