The Afghan military carried out an airstrike against Badakhshan Province on Friday, killing 12 members of a local allied forces in one of the largest friendly fire incidents in the country in months.
The local allied faction is called the public uprising forces, and seems to have been deliberately targeted for some unexplained reason. The airstrike hit an outpost belonging to the faction, and their commander is among 12 confirmed killed. Eight more of the fighters are reported missing, their fate unknown.
The Afghan military doesn’t have a great track record on its own airstrikes, and so far they have not offered an attempt at an explanation for what happened in this case, and local officials have not commented at all.
Badakhshan hasn’t been one of the provinces with a lot going on lately, but with the military increasingly relying on its allies nationwide to mount proper defenses, killing and alienating such a group like this will clearly be a problem going forward.
Afghan Airstrike Kills 12 Allies in Friendly Fire in Badakhshan
Attack hit outpost belonging to allied faction
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.
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