Agence France-Presse,
Investigations were under way Saturday into the killing of three British soldiers in a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet and intended for Afghanistan's Taliban rebels.
The “friendly fire” incident in the southern province of Helmand late Thursday was one of the deadliest in a string of such mistakes in the intensifying international campaign against the Al-Qaeda-backed Taliban.
The British soldiers were struck by a bomb dropped by a US F-15 jet called in to help during a fierce battle near the massive Kajaki Dam, which troops are fighting to secure from the hardline Taliban militia.
Three were killed outright and two wounded. The injured were Saturday at the main British base in Afghanistan, Camp Bastion in Helmand, awaiting repatriation.
The United States confirmed the deaths had been caused by a US bomb and said an inquiry would be launched.
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British soldiers stand guard near the site of a suicide attack in Kabul. Investigations were under way Saturday into the killing of three British soldiers in a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet and intended for Afghanistan's Taliban rebels.(AFP/Massoud Hossaini)
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The United States was “deeply saddened,” said Kurt Volker, the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.
“We will investigate this tragic incident thoroughly with our British allies,” he said Friday. “We are committed to making information available as quickly as possible.”
The British army and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, under which the troops were serving, also announced immediate investigations.
The dead soldiers were named as Aaron McClure, 19, Robert Foster, 19, and John Thrumble, 21, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.
The regiment was deployed five months ago to some of the most difficult parts of Afghanistan, including Kajaki and the Taliban hotbed of Sangin further south.
At Kajaki, it undertakes regular foot patrols to test the limits of a four-kilometre (2.5-mile) “security bubble” British forces have set up around the Kajaki Dam, a major supplier of water and potentially electricity.
These patrols usually come into contact with Taliban fighters and regularly call in air power.
On Thursday, a “patrol was attacked by Taliban insurgents and during the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two US F-15 aircraft to repel the enemy,” the British defence ministry said.
“One bomb was dropped and it is believed the explosion killed the three soldiers,” it said.
Britain has more than 6,000 troops in Afghanistan, a figure which will increase to over 7,700 this year. They are mostly deployed in the south.
A total of 73 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, when the Taliban was driven from government by a US-led coalition after they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks.
There has been a string of “friendly fire” incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq, where international troops are also fighting hardline Islamic rebels.
In one of the deadliest for foreign troops in Afghanistan, four Canadian soldiers were killed in April 2002 when US jets bombed a Canadian unit taking part in a night-time exercise.
The same month Pat Tillman, a former American football star, was killed by “friendly fire” from other US soldiers in the southeastern province of Khost.
The US army initially said he was killed by the Taliban, prompting accusations of a cover-up.
The foreign forces came to Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. But despite their presence, the Taliban has mounted an insurgency which has intensified, with almost daily attacks.
In the latest violence, at least 20 people, most of them rebels but also three security guards and two police officers have been killed since Friday.
The three guards were killed in a roadside bomb blast blamed on the Taliban in volatile southern Kandahar province. The two police were killed in fighting with the insurgents in the provinces of Ghazni and Paktika.
