An early morning skirmish with militants turned out to be more than a US Special Operations Forces unit bargained for, when they called in air support and the US B-1 bomber accidentally attacked them.
In what the Pentagon is calling a “likely” friendly-fire incident, five of the US soldiers were killed in the air strike against Zabul Province. Rear Admiral John Kirby promised an investigation into the incident.
The incident is the worst single friendly-fire incident of the war, passing a 2002 incident in which a US warplane killed four Canadian soldiers during a “night exercise” in Kandahar.
Afghan officials reported that in addition to the US troops, one Afghan army officer was killed in the US air strike. Zabul police chief Gen. Ghulam Rooghlawanay confirmed the incident, saying it happened during a joint forces operation between special forces and Afghan army units.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
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Another example of "precision" targeting… It's not bad enough that the ones we're trying to train are killing the trainers, now the air support is also. For what? Why are we still there? How many more Americans must die before the reality sinks in that there is nothing there that the American people need to die for? What ideology is worth more Americans dying for?
What ideology? Why, more money for uber-wealthy American investors in The Terror War, Inc. There you have it. Rich man's war, poor man's fight.
McCain was ready to blame Bergdahl for this, but somebody on his staff tackled him before he could open his mouth.
More interventions, more allied forces killed. At the end of the day, the other side wins. E.g. Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, and soon it'll be Syria and Ukraine, and then the China Sea.
these 5 death Special Forces.. are they really killed in this convenient accient ? or they were killed in some other foreign nation like say.. ukraine ?
How increadably ironic, that on the same day as the house voted to cancel the A-10 warthog.
the only effective and accurate close air support weapon in the US inventory.
If the gunner mistake the target, then accuracy is a drawback.
I would guess most "friendly fire" incidents are down to human error not errant ordnance or systems failures.
"I would guess"
Perhaps, you might do some research, and include collateral damage,
which is also closely related in causality.