A U.S. airstrike mistakenly hit an Afghan police unit in the southern province of Helmand, killing 16 police officers and wounding two others, the provincial governor’s office said Saturday.

The Pentagon confirmed that coalition forces had launched the errant strike on Friday near the town of Gereshk, where U.S. and Afghan forces have been engaged in close combat with Taliban insurgents.

“We would like to express our deepest condolences to the families affected by this unfortunate incident,” the U.S. military in Afghanistan said in a statement.

The statement said the airstrikes came during a U.S.-supported Afghan operation in which Afghan security personnel had gathered in a compound. The U.S. military said it would conduct an investigation.


Officials in Helmand said that the police unit that was struck had reached Gereshk to support Afghan soldiers and police fighting to keep Taliban insurgents from entering the town.

As the battle unfolded, Afghan forces requested an airstrike by their U.S. allies, which hit a compound where the police unit was gathered.

“We are still trying to find out why the incident took place and whose fault it was,” said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the Helmand governor.

Police officials said they were investigating the incident, which occurred about five miles outside Gereshk, north of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.


Most of Helmand, a poppy-growing region that has long been strategically important for the Taliban, is controlled by insurgents. Afghan forces, backed by U.S. warplanes and ground troops, have battled for months to regain territory and keep the provincial capital from falling into Taliban hands.

Also Saturday, officials said that more than 40 Afghan government-backed militiamen were killed in a Taliban raid that captured a district in the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan.

Ahmad Faisal Begzad, governor of Badakhshan, said that members of the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-funded government militia, and other pro-government fighters were killed in the attack Friday in the district of Tagab.

Sultan Mohammad Awrang, a former lawmaker from the province, said the Taliban staged the raid days after Afghan Local Police ambushed a group of insurgents and killed eight, including a commander.


Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

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UPDATES:


10:15 a.m., July 22: This article was updated with staff reporting and a revised death toll.

11:40 p.m.: This article was updated with fighting in Badakhshan and Farah provinces.

This article was originally published at 10:15 p.m., July 21.