NATO air strike kills 4 policemen, 2 civilians in south Afghanistan

Five policemen and two civilians have been killed in a NATO air attack in the Ghasni province in southern Afghanistan, France Presse reports. NATO planes were called in to support police officers attacked by Taliban insurgents in the early hours of Thursday.

A spokesman for the US-led NATO force in Kabul told AFP that the military was checking the information. The attack happened after Taliban insurgents attacked a local police post in eastern Ghazni province before dawn and NATO planes were called in to support the officers under attack.

"The NATO planes went there to assist the police, but the post was bombed and four police were killed. Two civilians present were also killed," said Fazul Ahmad Tolwak, chief of Ghazni's Deh Yak district.

Ghazni provincial administration spokesman Fazul Sabawoon confirmed the incident and gave a similar account.The issue of civilian casualties in coalition operations is highly sensitive in Afghanistan, where the United States and its NATO allies have been fighting the Taliban for 11 years.

A few days ago, a NATO air strike in the same province killed at least two civilians and wounded more than 20 others.