Washington, November 07: Five US soldiers were wounded during a search operation for two American troops who went missing in Afghanistan, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The five are believed to have been among more than 25 ISAF and Afghan troops injured by what a military official said anonymously was friendly fire.
However, ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, of the US Air Force, said: “We have nothing to confirm friendly fire”.
”No ISAF members were killed,” he said, when confirming that five injured ISAF soldiers were Americans.
Investigations into Friday’s incident, believed to have happened in Baghdis province, were ongoing and no further details were available, he said.
The incident is believed to have taken place during a clash between a ISAF and Afghan soldiers who were searching for two paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division who went missing Wednesday during a routine supply mission.
Local police said a party looking for the two missing soldiers clashed with Taliban and that alliance aircraft were called in to provide support.
Police said the casualties occurred when the air strike mistakenly targeted international troops.
A Western military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appeared to be a “blue-on-blue incident”, or friendly fire, with “a huge number of casualties”.
NATO began its search operation in the barren, rugged area together with Afghan forces after the two paratroopers disappeared.
Afghan police said the two had drowned while trying to retrieve cartons of food that were dropped into a river.
—Agencies