US forces in Afghanistan said today they had launched an air strike that killed a number of private Afghan security guards only after coming under fire from that position.
Afghan provincial authorities said yesterday they were investigating reports that 20 private security guards had been killed in a US-led coalition air strike southwest of Kabul.
A provincial government source said US-led forces called in the strike to fend off an attack by Taliban insurgents on several posts of the local security company that guards a road construction project in the Giro district of Ghazni.
But a spokesman for US forces said coalition troops called in air support after they were ambushed from multiple positions, including that occupied by the private security guards.
Afghanistan has suffered a marked escalation of violence this year, the bloodiest period since US-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up al-Qaeda leaders behind the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by foreign troops in operations against Taliban militants in Afghanistan this year, according to Afghan officials and aid groups.
While Taliban insurgents have killed more ordinary Afghans in their attacks, the issue of civilian casualties caused by international troops has led to a rift between the Afghan government and its Western backers.
The hardline Islamist Taliban have extended both the size and the scope of their insurgency in the last two years with scores of suicide and roadside bombs backing a campaign of guerrilla warfare and intimidation.
Reuters