Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Five U.S. troops killed in Afghan friendly-fire incident --- (Reuters) - Five U.S. servicemen were killed in southern Afghanistan in a friendly-fire air strike during a security operation, Afghan police and the Pentagon said on Tuesday, days before a run-off round in the country's presidential election. -- The men died on Monday in Zabul province's Arghandab district when their unit, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), clashed with insurgents. -- Local police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghlewanai said: "The five killed were American soldiers who just returned from an operation when they were hit. -- "ISAF troops were returning to their bases after an operation when they were ambushed by the insurgents. The air strike mistakenly hit their own forces and killed the soldiers." -- A Pentagon statement said investigators were "looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen." -- A spokesman for the Islamist Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said insurgents had been attacking the foreign forces when the helicopters intervened and accidentally killed their own troops. -- Taliban insurgents, meanwhile, kidnapped 35 professors from Kandahar University after stopping their van on the highway linking the southern province and Kabul, a spokesman for provincial governor said. -- "The professors were on their way to the capital when they were abducted and tribal elders are now involved in negotiating with the Taliban," Dawa Khan Minapal said by telephone. -- The Taliban, removed from power by a U.S.-led drive into Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks, is on an offensive ahead of the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of 2014. -- Security is being ramped up in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday's run-off vote to replace President Hamid Karzai. -- The poll pits Abdullah Abdullah, a former leader of the opposition to the Taliban, against former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.

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