NATO Kills at Least Seven Police in Afghan Air Strike

Afghan Interior Minister Labels Deaths 'Friendly Fire'

A NATO air strike in the northern Kunduz Province of Afghanistan has left at least seven Afghan police killed and two others wounded. The attacks came during a “joint operation.”

Reportedly a joint patrol of Afghan soldiers and NATO forces came under fire in the Imam Sahib district, but when they called in the air strike they hit the police “by mistake.”

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry labeled the killings “friendly fire.” It was the latest in a growing number of strikes across Afghanistan which have missed their intended target and killed police or civilians.

Officials say NATO intends to launch a major offensive in northern Afghanistan at some point in the near future. Kunduz, along the Tajik border, was the site of a massive air strike last fall which killed an enormous number of civilians.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.