KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO pilots mistakenly attacked Afghan soldiers who had laid a trap for Taliban militants and killed at least five of the soldiers on Wednesday, a devastating case of friendly fire in a conflict still troubled by miscommunication among allied forces, Afghan officials said.

The attack in the Andar district of Ghazni Province, about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, suggested a serious lack of coordination between NATO troops and Afghan forces battling militants who hold sway in part of the district known as Rahim Khiel.

The Afghan soldiers “had made an ambush for the enemy” when they were attacked early Wednesday morning, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said the “air force” had “bombarded” the Afghan soldiers; a NATO official later said a helicopter had fired a single rocket into the formation of Afghan troops.

“We condemn this incident,” General Azimi said. “Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened, but we hope this would be the last one.”

According to the NATO official, the helicopter attacked the Afghan soldiers after a patrol of NATO troops spotted the Afghans and, mistaking them for militants, fed information to the helicopter that fired the rocket.

While General Azimi put the Afghan casualty toll at five dead soldiers and two wounded, the head of security in Ghazni Province, Abdul Ghani, said six soldiers were killed and one was wounded. It also was not clear when the attack took place. General Azimi said he believed that it occurred about 4 a.m., but Mr. Ghani said he understood that it happened closer to midnight.

A NATO spokesman did not say which country’s aircraft attacked the Afghan troops but said the accident might have resulted from a “coordination issue.”

 

Reporting was contributed by John F. Burns from London, Alan Cowell from Paris, and Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sharifullah Sahak from Kabul.

 

 


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/world/asia/08afghan.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print