JALALABAD, June 12: US-led soldiers and warplanes killed seven Afghan policemen in a midnight battle that erupted when both sides mistook each other for militants, officials said on Tuesday.

The foreign soldiers, who had been on an anti-Taliban operation, called in jets to assist them after coming under fire in the eastern province of Nangarhar around midnight on Monday, they said.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the “heartbreaking incident” was a result of “a misunderstanding and lack of coordination.” The US-led coalition force said its troops had been trying to conduct an operation on a “suspected Taliban safe house” about 30 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital Jalalabad.

“En route to the location the forces were suddenly ambushed from both sides with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms and returned fire and called in air support and broke contact,” spokesman Major Chris Belcher said.

“Following the engagement, the identity of the assailants was called into question,” he said. He had no information on casualties.

Afghan police initially said they were attacked first.

“They attacked us from ground and air,” said provincial police official Nasir Ahmad Safi, identifying the soldiers as Americans.

“They killed seven police brutally,” he said, alleging the bodies of the dead each had around 20 bullet wounds. “Unless the criminals are prosecuted, we will not bury the bodies in a protest.” Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi said later that Afghan forces had not been informed of the coalition operation.

“When the international forces went to the area, the Afghan national police thought it was the enemy and opened fire on them,” he told a media briefing.

“Since it was not coordinated previously, they (the troops) also assumed they came under fire from enemy and they returned fire and the area was bombarded as well.” The foreign forces had approached the Afghan police post from two directions, Nangarhar provincial governor Gul Agha Shirzay said. “Police assumed it was the enemy. It was a misunderstanding.” The coalition, which led the invasion that removed the Taliban from government in late 2001, operates in Afghanistan alongside a Nato-led deployment drawn from 37 countries and the various Afghan security forces.

There have been several incidents of “friendly fire” in the past, including among the foreign forces.

A US warplane mistakenly bombed a Canadian unit in April 2002, killing four soldiers. And in April last year, six policemen were killed when coalition helicopters fired rockets and bullets in support of Afghan forces.

In late April this year, the coalition and US Special Forces led an operation in the western province of Herat that UN and Afghan investigations estimated killed about 50 civilians.

Afghan authorities said they were not informed about that operation, which the coalition said killed more than 100 Taliban.

The killings added to anger about the number of people being killed in operations against Islamist militants who are trying to bring down the western-backed government.

The violence has grown steadily with near-daily rebel attacks, most of them in the south.

A patrol of coalition soldiers and Afghan highway police was ambushed twice in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday and killed more than two dozen “enemy fighters” after calling in close air support, the coalition said.

The Canadian defence ministry said meanwhile that a Canadian soldier with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan was killed and two wounded in an explosion in the south on Monday.—AFP