Kunduz: A NATO air strike mistakenly killed seven Afghan police and wounded two others in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, hospital and government officials said.
The NATO-run International Security Assistance Force confirmed an "incident" but a spokesman said the military was "still tracking down what happened" in Kunduz province, where Taliban violence has recently picked up.
"Around 2:30 pm (1000 GMT), an Afghan Army, police and NATO patrol were attacked by Taliban in Imam Sahib district," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said in the capital Kabul.
NATO called in an air strike and "the Afghan forces were bombed by mistake," the spokesman said.
"Seven policemen were killed, including two officers, and two policemen were wounded," he said.
The director of the main hospital in Kunduz, Noor Ull-Haq Hakimi, confirmed that the bodies of seven policemen were brought in along with two who were wounded after the incident.
The local government confirmed the incident but was unable to say whether police had been killed or wounded.
In the south, 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan forces pressing a major offensive against a key Taliban bastion, where commanders say progress has been slowed by hidden bombs and militants hiding behind human shields.
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 19, 2010, 09:50