KABUL, Feb 18: The United States has confirmed its warplanes bombed “enemy positions” in eastern Afghanistan to help defend friendly forces, amid reports an Afghan government soldier was killed in a US raid in the region.
The US military’s Central Command issued a statement on Sunday saying the bombing attacks occurred over the weekend without disclosing exactly where or if there were any casualties.
The statement was released after the son of a warlord in the eastern province of Khost said a US bombing raid there had killed a government security force member and injured four others.
Abdul Wali, the son of regional warlord Padsha Khan, said the US bombing raid occurred following an armed clash between tribes near the village of Gurboz, some five kilometres from Khost city.
“The Americans have not bombed any villages but they did bomb an ammunition depot,” he said.
“Four people have been wounded and one killed from the security forces of Khost province.”
The Central Command statement said US warplanes dropped precision-guided bombs when pro-Kabul government forces came under attack from enemy troops about on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan.
The statement said the pro-government forces had called in the airstrike after enemy troops fired on them as they attempted to pass a roadblock.
The US aircraft returned on Sunday for a follow-up strike, dropping more precision-guided weapons.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) had earlier reported that local security forces had come under attack from feuding tribesmen as they responded to fighting in the district of Farm Bagh district, 30kms east of Khost, on Saturday.
A local resident, Zahir Shah, said US jets flew over the troubled town and dropped some bombs.
Saturday’s clash was one of two outbreaks of violence in Afghan provinces over the weekend.
At least four people died in northern Samangan province in battles between ethnic Uzbek and Tajik forces, a top commander said on Sunday.
Atta Mohammad, an ethnic Tajik commander based in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said up to four soldiers died in the clashes, which involved one of his own local commanders and another allied to ethnic Uzbek Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Dostum’s forces were driven from the district late on Saturday night after light arms and rocket skirmishes, Atta claimed.
The weekend provincial fighting followed violence in Kabul last week which saw the nation’s aviation minister beaten to death and several people injured in brawls outside a football match.
The violence underscored a weekend call by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to play a stronger role in Afghanistan.
The currently British-led ISAF is confined to Kabul and will number only 4,500 troops at its peak this month.
On Sunday Karzai said he would ask for a change in ISAF’s mandate if that is what it takes to control violence in Afghanistan.
“If the security situation in Afghanistan does not improve further, we will make sure the international security forces are asked together with the Afghan forces to take a stronger role,” Karzai said.
ISAF troops say they have also been the object of attacks, alleging that gunmen fired on British troops in Kabul before dawn on Saturday.
The British forces returned fire and an Afghan man was later found fatally shot and four people wounded in a nearby house, ISAF chief of staff Colonel Richard Barrons said.—AFP