NATO-led airstrike reportedly kills 17 Afghan police officers ‘by mistake’

An airstrike by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission reportedly killed 17 police officers in Afghanistan on Thursday, injuring a dozen others in a ‘mistake’ during fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban.

The strike was conducted as Afghan police were fighting the Taliban outside Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province, with Afghan officials describing the incident as a “mistake”. Head of the provincial council Attaullah Afghan said 14 policemen were also wounded in the strike.

It wasn’t clear whether Afghan or US forces carried out the strike, the AP reported, although the Taliban claimed it had been US forces.

The provincial governor’s spokesman Omar Zwak said the strike was carried out by NATO Resolute Support mission forces in the Nahr-e-Seraj area, al Jazeera reports. DW reports Zwak said that only eight police officers were killed in the NATO strike.

Resolute Support is a NATO-led mission that advises and assists Afghanistan’s national security forces and consists of over 13,000 troops from the US, Germany, the UK, and other countries. NATO has not commented on the incident.  

Helmand’s Governor Mohammad Yasin said the air strike is being investigated.

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