August 25, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 11, 1428

CAMP BASTION (Afghanistan), Aug 24: Three British Nato troops were killed in an apparent “friendly fire” incident in Afghanistan when US jets dropped a bomb on them during fighting with the Taliban, officials said Friday.

The incident, near Kajaki in southern Helmand province, happened late on Thursday when two United States warplanes were called to provide support after an attack by the rebels, the Ministry of Defence in London said.

The deaths are likely to spark anger in Britain, where a coroner ruled earlier this year that a British soldier was unlawfully killed by US pilots in Iraq and criticised the Pentagon for failing to provide information.

“Their patrol was attacked by Taliban insurgents and during the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two US F15 aircraft to repel the enemy,” a ministry statement said.

“A single bomb was dropped and it is believed the explosion killed all three soldiers who were declared dead at the scene.” The soldiers were all from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment. Two others were injured in the attack and are being treated at Camp Bastion, the main base in insurgency-torn Helmand.

A reporter embedded with British troops at Camp Bastion said most of the 150 soldiers in the area are deployed to secure the site of the major Kajaki hydro-electric dam project.The soldiers control an area about four kilometres around the base and go out on regular patrols to the limits of their “security bubble”, where they often make contact with Taliban.

The area saw intense fighting about a year ago, with the Taliban also keen to control the dam, and most of the villages in the secured area are deserted.

The US embassy in London issued a brief statement saying that the “tragic deaths” would be thoroughly investigated. “The United States expresses its deep condolences to the families and loved ones of the soldiers who died, and we wish those who were injured a speedy recovery,” it said.

Both the British army and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched immediate investigations into the deaths.

“ISAF is committed to finding out exactly how this tragedy occurred and how similar incidents can be avoided,” spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Claudia Foss said in a statement.

The new deaths take to nine the number of Royal Anglians killed in action since they were deployed to Afghanistan nearly five months ago.

A British Royal Marine, Jonathan Wigley, 21, was killed by suspected “friendly fire” in Helmand in December 2006. British newspapers quoted fellow soldiers as saying he was killed by a US A-10 “tankbuster” jet.

Earlier this year an investigating coroner in the British city of Oxford repeatedly expressed his frustration at the Pentagon's failure to provide vital information and witnesses into the death of a British trooper in Iraq.—AFP