Nato strike kills 7 Afghan security personnel

Seven Afghan security personnel were killed in a mis-targeted Nato air strike in the remote northwest of the country, the defence ministry said yesterday.

The 'friendly fire' incident occurred when Nato and Afghan forces searching for two missing American paratroopers in the barren, rugged area clashed with the Taliban.

"Due to a Nato forces air strike on November 6 in Badghis province, seven Afghan security personnel (both army and national police) were martyred and also some were wounded," the ministry said in a statement.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that more than 25 ISAF and Afghan security personnel were killed or wounded during the joint operation.

It said it was investigating whether some of those casualties resulted from friendly fire. However, one Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that it appeared to be a "blue-on-blue incident" - a military term for friendly fire - with "a huge number of casualties".

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP there was no doubt Afghan personnel had been killed and injured by their international partners.

"It was an erroneous air strike which caused casualties to friendly forces," he said.

ISAF said that together with Afghan authorities, it was "currently investigating whether some of the casualties were caused by ISAF close air support".

ISAF said its personnel and Afghan forces had been "engaged by enemy forces," meaning the Taliban, while searching for the two soldiers who went missing last Wednesday while trying to recover airdropped supplies from a river.

"More than 25 ISAF and Afghan National Security Force personnel were killed or wounded during a joint operation that involved multiple engagements over several hours yesterday in western Afghanistan," ISAF said, adding that four Afghan soldiers and three police were killed.

ISAF earlier said five of the wounded were American soldiers.

The use of air power in Afghanistan has been controversial, with civilian casualties sparking public anger and prompting President Hamid Karzai to demand a halt to air strikes earlier this year.

Last Friday, German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said mistakes had been made in a German-ordered air raid in September carried out by US aircraft, which killed as many as 142 people.

Afghan police said the two missing paratroopers had drowned while trying to retrieve cartons of food that had been dropped into a river.