Strike misses Taliban, kills 5 Americans

1 Afghan soldier slain, too; ‘friendly fire’ investigated

White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Earnest answered questions including on the recent soldier deaths in Afghanistan.
White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Earnest answered questions including on the recent soldier deaths in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Five American troops with a special-operations unit and at least one Afghan soldier were killed by a U.S. airstrike called in to help them after they were ambushed by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, in one of the deadliest friendly-fire episodes in nearly 14 years of war, Afghan and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Investigators were looking into possible causes, including faulty coordinates, an errant bomb or other human error.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the five American troops were killed Monday "during a security operation in southern Afghanistan."

"Investigators are looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen," Kirby said in a statement.

In Washington, U.S. defense officials said the five Americans were with a special-operations unit that they did not identify. Earlier, officials had said all five were special operations-qualified troops, but later an official said their exact affiliation was unclear and one or more may have been conventional soldiers working with the special-operations unit.

The deaths occurred during a joint operation of Afghan and NATO forces in the Arghandab district of southern Zabul province, where troops were conducting security operations connected to the presidential runoff election Saturday, said provincial police chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rooghlawanay.

After the operation, the troops were attacked by the Taliban and called in air support, he said.

"Unfortunately five NATO soldiers and one Afghan army officer were killed mistakenly by the NATO airstrike," Rooghlawanay said.

NATO officials declined to comment.

Hajji Qudratullah Khan, a resident of Giza village, near where the airstrike hit, said the area is a Taliban stronghold, in a valley surrounded by mountains covered in bushes. He said the military had not been based in the area for some time, allowing the Taliban there to operate with impunity.

"I don't think people will come out for election, because only the district center is secure," he added. "There is no way the people will come out in villages."

Special-operations forces often come under fire on joint operations and are responsible for calling in air support when needed. Because of constraints placed by President Hamid Karzai, such airstrikes are usually called "in extremis," when troops fear they are about to be killed.

Airstrikes have long been a point of contention between the Afghan government and the coalition forces, most often when they have caused civilian casualties.

Airstrikes that kill coalition soldiers are far less common. One of the worst such episodes was in April 2002, when four Canadian soldiers were killed by an American F-16 jet fighter that dropped a bomb on troops during a night firing exercise in southern Kandahar. In April 2004, former National Football League player Pat Tillman was killed by coalition fire while serving in an Army Ranger unit in one of the most highly publicized cases.

Relatives identified two of the five American troops killed Monday.

One of those killed was 19-year-old Aaron Toppen of Mokena, Ill., who had deployed to Afghanistan in March, a month after his father died, according to a family spokesman, Jennie Swartz. His family was suffering a "double hit" of grief, Toppen's sister, Amanda Gralewski, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Also killed was Justin Helton of Beaver, Ohio, said a cousin, Mindy Helton. Justin Helton specialized in dealing with explosives and was based out of Fort Bragg, N.C. Mindy Helton said the 25-year-old had been in Afghanistan for about two months.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday's ambush in Zabul.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a battle took place between foreign troops and Taliban fighters in the Arghandab district, and a "huge number" of NATO soldiers were killed or wounded in the fighting. The Taliban often exaggerate their claims.

The insurgents have intensified attacks on Afghan and foreign forces ahead of Saturday's presidential runoff, and officials are concerned there could be more violence around the time of the vote, although the first round in April passed relatively peacefully.

Of the 30,000 or so U.S. troops left in Afghanistan, special-operations forces are among the only ones that are active on the battlefield, mentoring and advising Afghan commandos during raids.

An even smaller group that operates independently of the NATO coalition mandate, which expires at the end of the year, goes after high-value targets including the remnants of al-Qaida. Many of those special forces are likely to remain after the end of 2014, when foreign combat troops leave the country.

Although the U.S. has pledged 9,800 troops will remain until the end of 2016, a bilateral security agreement allowing them to do so has yet to be signed. The two candidates vying to succeed Karzai have said they will sign the deal.

Most of those troops will be training and advising the Afghan army and police, but a small counterterrorism force will still go after high-value jihadists still in the country.

Separately, a NATO statement said a service member died Monday as a result of a nonbattlefield injury in eastern Afghanistan.

The deaths raise to 36 the number of NATO soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, with eight service members killed in June.

Casualties have been falling in the U.S.-led military coalition as its forces pull back to allow the Afghan army and police to fight the Taliban insurgency. Violence against Afghans, however, has continued unabated.

Insurgents attacked two vehicles carrying civilian de-miners in eastern Logar province on Tuesday, killing eight and wounding three, said provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh.

In eastern Ghazni province, insurgents kidnapped 33 university instructors on Afghanistan's most important highway.

The professors were on a bus headed north on Highway 1, which connects Kandahar to Kabul, when they got caught in a firefight between insurgents and Afghan security forces, according to Afghan officials and the professors' colleagues at Kandahar University.

At some point, the Taliban fighters abducted the busload of civilians.

University officials were working through tribal elders to secure the release of the professors, said Hazrat Totakhel, the chancellor of Kandahar University. It was unclear where and why they were being held.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Ghazni province, where the abduction occurred, said he expected the men to be released as early as today after contacts with the Taliban.

Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez, Patrick Quinn, Robert Burns and Hope Yen of The Associated Press; by Azam Ahmed, Taimoor Shah and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times; and by Ernesto Londono and Sayed Salahuddin of The Washington Post.

A Section on 06/11/2014

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