U.S. Helicopter “Friendly Fire” Incident Kills Eight Afghan Soldiers
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 (UPI) — At least eight Afghan Army soldiers were killed and five were wounded after two U.S. helicopters attacked a military checkpoint the country’s Logar province on Monday.
The attack happened at 6:40 a.m. local time, according to Mohammad Rahim Amin, district chief of Baraki Barak.
“The outpost was completely destroyed; it was fired upon a lot,” Amin told The New York Times. “The bodies were in bad shape.”
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Much of the Logar countryside is controlled by the Taliban. The helicopters returned fire after being attacked by insurgents on the ground, which led to the “friendly fire” incident in the Baraki Barak district, about 40 miles from Kabul, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defense.
The military checkpoint was clearly flying the Afghan flag, according to BBC News.
A Taliban group on about 25 motorcycles attempted to take over the checkpoint after the incident, but were repelled by the Afghan Local Police after two hours of heavy fighting.
“After the American strikes, the Taliban tried to run over the outpost and capture the five wounded soldiers lying there,” Sabir Khan, a local police commander, told the Times. “The heads of the two of the soldiers were missing.”
Afghan authorities were able to retrieve the bodies and the wounded. New soldiers have been relocated to the post.
Col. Brian Tribus, spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, confirmed “an incident involving U.S. forces in Logar province this morning,” adding it was under investigation.
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