North Atlantic Treaty Organisation airstrike kills 8 Afghan soldiers

“The checkpoint caught fire… and 10 Afghan army soldiers were killed”.

A USA military spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus reassured that the accident is under investigation and the guilty ones will be found.

The air strike in the province’s Baraki Barak district came after five civilians were killed and six others injured in a similar North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack in Afghanistan in December 2014.

Another local official said two helicopters started firing on the ANA outpost from two different sides.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan in December but around 10,000 coalition troops remain in the country to provide training and logistical support to Afghan forces in their continuing fight against the Taliban.

Afghan officials sat down with Taliban cadres this month in Murree, a tourist town in the hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.

Provincial police chief Mohammad Daud Ahmadzai confirmed that eight members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) lost their lives and several others were wounded in the airstrike.

The United Nations reported that most of the victims of “friendly fire” from airstrikes are civilians.

The Afghan army does have some attack helicopters. Afghan troops, however, still depend on USA and allied forces in areas like air support, intelligence gathering and logistics.

It is rare for USA or coalition bombings to kill Afghan troops, but it has happened before.