US airstrikes kill 8 police officers in Afghanistan

Rasa - At least eight police officers have been killed in US airstrikes in Afghanistan’s embattled central province of Uruzgan, officials say.

News ID: 423703

Date: 19 September 2016 - 15:46

RNA - A military commander said Monday one officer was killed in an initial airstrike targeting police checkpoint in the Saki area of Tirin Kot while seven others were killed in a follow-up strike.

Uruzgan deputy police chief Mohammed Qawi Omari put the death toll at six but said the police were killed by a foreign airstrike. Afghan officials said they were investigating the attack.

The US military command in Kabul confirmed that its warplanes had conducted an airstrike in the area, but said they targeted individuals firing on, and posing a threat to security forces.

The Taliban militant group also said a number of policemen had been killed in American raids in Tirin Kot.

According to provincial officials, Taliban militants briefly entered Tirin Kot in early September before being pushed back by security forces.

Afghanistan has been gripped by insecurity since the US and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the country still remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

The military invasion removed Taliban, but militants still seek to wrest control over the war-ravaged country.

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