U.S. Forces Kill 6 Afghan Police Officers by Mistake

[groovedaddy]

KABUL, Afghanistan — United States forces killed six Afghan police officers and one civilian on Wednesday during an assault on the hide-out of a suspected Taliban commander, the authorities said, in what an American military spokesman called a “tragic case of mistaken identity.” Thirteen Afghan officers were also wounded in the episode.

A statement issued jointly by the American and the Afghan military commands said a contingent of police officers fired on United States forces after the Americans had successfully overrun the hide-out, killing the suspected Taliban commander and detaining another man.

The statement said the Americans had already entered the hide-out, a building in Qalat, the capital of the southern province of Zabul, when they came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from “a compound nearby.”

“Multiple attempts to deter the engagement were unsuccessful,” the statement said.

The Americans, concerned about women and children hiding in the building they had taken, returned fire using small arms and aircraft, the statement said.

After the firefight, the Americans discovered they had been shooting at Afghan police officers, the statement said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/world/asia/11afghan.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. :^(

[amdezurik]

2. there was no "mistake" here

US forces deliberatly CHOOSE not to let the local cops know, and when the cops tried to repel armed invaders in the dark US forces brough in a copter to wipe them out...

[groovedaddy]

3. They didn't let the cops know because they feared they would "tip off" the Taliban

Which just demonstrates how hopeless this situation is.

[amdezurik]

4. yeah much much better to slaughter the cops

after all to go to the trouble to send someone to them right as it is beginning to let them know to stay out of it (notice i did NOT say BEFORE) would have been way to much trouble and saved some blood from being spilled.

[groovedaddy]

5. I wondered about that too...timing is everything. This has happened before so

there really is no excuse for this shit. This isn't the way you win "hearts and minds."

[amdezurik]

6. sadly that is not their mission

it is only to keep the opium flowing it seems...

[groovedaddy]

9. Where the Bush's REALLY make their money! n.t

[balantz]

7. When they say "American Forces" I'd like to know exactly which ones.

I want to know how many private militia are there as well as the U.S. military.

[balantz]

8. I found some numbers from 2007.

http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1721

-snip-

The Defense Department says the U.S. military employs 1,000 security contractors, and the State Department and the government of Afghanistan also hire PSCs. Estimates on the number of private security personnel in Afghanistan exceed 10,000 for registered groups alone. This number is small in absolute terms when compared with the number of PSCs in Iraq, but it comprises a substantial military presence for Afghanistan. If this figure is accurate, private security personnel outnumber the troop contribution of every nation but the United States, and are almost a third the size of the Afghan National Army (estimated at around 35,000).

-snip-