“Friendly fire” from an American aircraft killed five US troops in a botched effort to repel a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.
The deadly mishap on Monday night ranks among the worst foul-ups of the American war effort, which is winding down after nearly 14 years of conflict.
Explosives dropped from a B-1B bomber apparently killed the Americans, an official briefed on the investigation told The Washington Post.
At least two of the dead were military special operators, the official added.
An Afghan soldier was also killed by the errant airstrike in Zabul province, provincial police chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rooghlawanay said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said the incident took place during a “security operation” in the war-torn region near Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.
“Investigators are looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause,” Kirby said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fallen.”
The Pentagon was widely criticized following the 2004 friendly-fire death of NFL star-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman, whose unintended shooting by fellow Americans was initially blamed on enemy fighters.
The truth didn’t come out until after Tillman’s emotional funeral, at which younger brother Richard memorably rejected condolences that Pat was “with God,” saying: “He’s just f–king dead.”
Britain’s Guardian newspaper said Monday’s incident followed a day of heavy fighting by more than 150 US and Afghan forces ahead of Saturday’s Afghan presidential run-off election, which insurgents have vowed to disrupt.
Rooghlawanay said the coalition forces “were returning to their bases after an operation when they were ambushed by the insurgents.”
The Americans called in air support, but “the airstrike mistakenly hit their own forces and killed the soldiers,” he added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the ambush, with a spokesman also boasting that a “huge number” of NATO soldiers were killed or wounded during the earlier combat.
One of the Americans who died was identified Tuesday as Army Pvt. Aaron Toppen, 19, of Mokena, Ill.