US airstrike kills 8 Afghan police officers

At least eight policemen have been killed in a US airstrike on Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand in what was seemingly an accident.

The air raid was carried out by the US forces on Thursday night, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for Helmand’s governor, adding that it also left 12 other police personnel wounded.

A spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Dave Butler, said the aerial attack took place after Afghan forces requested US air support during a firefight with the Taliban militants near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, calling the casualties a “tragic accident.”

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi confirmed the death toll but said 11 people had been wounded.

Separately, the head of the Helmand provincial council Ataullah Afghan put the death toll at 18. He said 14 other policemen had been injured.

The United States has recently stepped up its air raids in Afghanistan in an attempt to exert pressure on the Taliban to accept a negotiated end to their 18-year militancy. Civilian casualties have increased amid that heightened aerial campaign.

SS