Nato Strike Kills More Policemen

(Reuters) - A foreign force air raid in central Afghanistan may have killed three Afghan police and wounded three, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Monday.

Civilian casualties and the mistaken killing of members of the Afghan security forces have been a frequent source of friction between President Hamid Karzai's government and Western military forces in a war now in its 10th year.
Foreign troops on patrol in Daykundi province on Sunday called in an air strike after seeing nine people setting up what appeared to be an ambush, ISAF said, adding it was later determined the raid may have targeted Afghan police.
"While we take extraordinary precaution while conducting operations to avoid friendly casualties, it appears innocent people may have been mistakenly targeted," senior ISAF spokesman Colonel Rafael Torres in a statement.
The air strike in Daykundi, a remote province west of Kabul, is the third such incident in more than a month. On December 8, the Afghan Defense Ministry condemned a foreign air raid in Logar province it said killed two of its soldiers and wounded five.
Less than a week later, on December 16, the Defense Ministry said a U.S. air strike in southern Helmand province had killed four Afghan soldiers.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since late 2001 when U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban for refusing to hand over al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden, after the September 11 al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
This report has now been confirmed. Third fatal attack by NATO on their own allies in a month (not to mention the civilians NATO have killed in the same period). It's nice to know, however, that they take 'extraordinary precaution' to avoid these now weekly incidents.