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US 'friendly fire' strike kills four Iraqi
Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq
27.8.2007
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August
27, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- A US air strike on two Kurdish
police outposts on Sunday killed four Kurdish
solders (Peshmerga) and wounded eight others in the
restive province of Diyala in what seems to be a
case of "friendly fire," officials said.
"Four policemen have been killed and eight wounded
when two US helicopters and two planes carried out
an air strike this morning against two police
outposts north of Baquba," Jabbar Yawar, spokesman
for the Kurdish peshmerga forces said..
The incident comes less than three days after a US
fighter jet dropped a bomb in southern Afghanistan
that was intended for Taliban rebels but ended up
killing three British soldiers and wounding two
more.
Yawar said the incident on Sunday occurred near the
town of Qara Tepe in an area largely inhabited by
Kurdish Shiites.
He said Kurdish forces have been deployed in Diyala,
particularly north of Baquba, at the request of the
US-led coalition forces, to "fight terrorism and the
firing at the outposts was a mistake."
The administration of Iraq's northern Kurdistan
region demanded an investigation into the incident.
"An accurate investigation should be launched to
avoid such incidents in the future," the Kurdish
interior ministry said in a statement.
US military confirmed the air strike but had no
details of casualties or even the "identity of the
target." It said it appeared two vehicles were
destroyed.
"We are still trying to identify which unit was
involved in the incident. We believe the US unit was
a small unit, which makes it harder to identify who
called for the helicopter strike," the military
said.
"We are still trying to determine the exact identity
of the target. We have seen reports that they may
have been Kurdish police but cannot verify that at
this time."
On February 9, 2007, a
U.S. airstrike mistakenly hit
a Kurdish position in Mosul city in
northern Iraq, killing at least eight Kurdish troops
and wounding six.
AFP
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