KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops shot and wounded two Afghan policemen and detained 12 others overnight after mistaking them for enemy fighters, a provincial police spokesman said Sunday. The 12, who had been handcuffed, were handed back to their headquarters on Sunday after the error was realised, Zabul province police spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil said.
The confusion arose when policemen manning a checkpost along a key highway running through Zabul heard gunfire from the foreign soldiers on Saturday and went to investigate, he said. ‘The troops were on an exercise, perhaps, near our checkpost. Our policemen came out to see what’s going on there after they heard gunshots,’ Alikhil told AFP. ‘NATO forces, mistaking them to be enemy, fired on them. Two policemen were injured and 12 others were taken away,’ he said.
The incident occurred near the Zabul capital Qalat. The Kabul media office of NATOÂ’s International Security Assistance Force did not immediately have information about the incident. |