LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. air strike killed as many as eight Afghan policemen outside the embattled provincial capital of Uruzgan province, Afghan officials said on Monday, as security forces, supported by U.S. strikes, battle resurgent Taliban militants. Local highway police commander Haji Rahimullah said the attacks hit a police checkpoint on the main highway near Uruzgan’s provincial capital of Tirin Kot, killing a police officer in the first strike and, in a second run, at least seven more officers who responded to the scene. The first attack killed our colleagues and while we were trying to pull-out our colleagues from the check post than another attack happened.”

The US military command in Kabul has confirmed its warplanes conducted an airstrike in the area, but said those targeted were “individuals firing on, and posing a threat to” Afghan national security forces. Gen. Charles Cleveland, spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said the strikes targeted “individuals firing on, and posing a threat to, our Afghan partners.”

“We don’t have any further information on who those individuals might have been or why they were attacking ANDSF (Afghan national defense and security forces),” Cleveland said. “U.S., coalition and Afghan forces have the right to self-defense, and in this case were responding to an immediate threat.”

The Afghan forces have taken on the primary responsibility for fighting the Taliban, who have waged a 15-year war against the Western-backed Kabul government. Afghan forces have primary responsibility for their country’s security in the fight against the 15-year Taliban insurgency, but U.S forces are authorized to conduct strikes to prevent strategic losses as well as to protect the Afghans and their allies, such as international advisers.
Afghan officials say yesterday's U.S. airstrikes killed up to eight Afghan policemen in Lashkar Gah, Uruzgan.