German soldiers traveling to the scene of a deadly firefight with Taliban insurgents accidentally killed six Afghan troops, the Afghan military said on Saturday. Three Germans died in the firefight with the militants.
The friendly fire incident on Friday took place in northern Kunduz Province, where German forces were sharply criticized in September when they ordered an airstrike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians.
The German central command confirmed Friday’s incident, but put the number of Afghan troop casualties at five. The deaths occurred amid heavy fighting between German troops and militants near Kunduz city.
Meanwhile in Kabul, the speaker of the lower house of parliament criticized Afghan President Hamid Karzai for blaming the international community on Thursday for the vote fraud controversy over last year’s disputed presidential election.
Yunus Qanooni blasted Karzai’s claim of foreign interference in drafting the nation’s electoral law, which the president had sought to amend this week to expand his control over the country’s institutions. Karzai was rebuffed by parliament.
“This is the house of the people and all the members have been elected,” Qanooni said. “It’s not possible that we would be influenced by foreigners.”
Karzai called US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday after the administration of US President Barack Obama expressed dismay at his remarks — a sign of the increasingly uneasy relations between the Afghan leader and key international allies whose forces support his weak government against a powerful Taliban insurgency.
Kunduz provincial spokesman Muhboballuh Sayedi said Afghan commanders were meeting on Saturday with coalition forces to discuss the incident. The Afghan Defense Ministry condemned the deaths of its soldiers.
Speaking during a visit to South Africa, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg expressed sorrow over the friendly fire deaths and said German soldiers were doing everything possible to avoid such incidents.
“But in a war ... we experience the bitter truth that such incidents can never be fully excluded,” the minister was quoted as saying by news weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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