Kabul: Investigations were under way on Sunday into the deaths of seven Afghan soldiers and police killed in what Afghan officials have called a mis-targeted NATO air strike.
The probes continued as the military separately announced the deaths yesterday of two more soldiers, one British and one American, in unrelated incidents.
On Friday four Afghan soldiers and three police officers were killed as NATO and Afghan forces clashed with Taliban insurgents during a search for two missing American paratroopers, officials have said.
"We and NATO are investigating the incident," Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
"We know that they were killed in the air strike. We're currently investigating the incident to find out why they were hit, so that such incidents can be prevented in the future," he added.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said today only that the probe was continuing and that there was an "ongoing search operation" for the two missing US soldiers.
If proven to be so-called "friendly fire," Friday's incident will have been one of the deadliest of its kind in the eight-year war. Nine Afghan police lost their lives in July last year when NATO fighter planes mistakenly bombed them in the southwestern province of Farah.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 08, 2009, 23:32