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thedrifter
01-14-08, 08:24 AM
Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008
Dutch Troops Kill 4 in Friendly Fire
By AP/ALISA TANG

(BAGRAM, Afghanistan)—Dutch troops in Afghanistan killed two of their own men during a nighttime battle, and separately two allied Afghan soldiers they mistook for enemies, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

"Darkness, the weather conditions and the confused situation" played a role in the mistake Saturday in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, Gen. Dick Berlijn, the top Dutch military commander, said in a statement.

Opposing fighters were in between Dutch units during the fighting several miles northwest of Camp Hadrian, near Deh Rawod.

The two Afghan soldiers, who were not "recognizably in uniform," also were killed Saturday after they approached a wounded Dutch soldier six miles to the south, Berlijn said.

Military police were investigating both incidents.

In the most famous friendly fire case of the Afghan conflict, Pat Tillman, a former U.S. football player who became an Army ranger, was killed in April 2004 by fellow troops near the Pakistani border.

In August, a U.S. warplane mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on British troops after they called for air support in Afghanistan, killing three soldiers and seriously wounding two others.

And in 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed when an American F-16 pilot on a night patrol dropped a 500-pound bomb on Canadian troops conducting a live-fire training exercise near the southern city of Kandahar. The pilot apparently mistook the Canadians for enemy forces and thought he was acting in self-defense, U.S. officials have said.

The Dutch soldiers killed Saturday were identified as Pvt. Wesley Schol, 20, and Cpl. Aldert Poortema, 22. The ministry did not release the names and ranks of the Afghan soldiers.

Around 1,650 Dutch are serving in Uruzgan province as part of the NATO mission there. The soldiers who were killed were part of an operation in which several hundred Dutch and Afghan soldiers are attempting to gauge prospects for refugees currently sheltering in the Deh Rawod bazaar to return home, Berlijn said.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced in November that the Dutch would extend their mission in Afghanistan for two years after it was due to expire in August 2008, reducing troop levels by 200 to 300 soldiers. Saturday's death brings the Dutch death toll in Afghanistan to 14.


The proposal is being considered ahead of a seasonal increase in violence by militants in the spring.

"I think if they do come, I think they will probably go to the south, to the Kandahar-Helmand area," Votel said of the Marines.

He said militant activity has dropped significantly near the Pakistan border because U.S. forces are placed more strategically there, and because of increased communication with Pakistan forces.

"Weather has an impact and slows things down, but right now it's about 42 percent below where it was last December and January. It has significantly dropped off," he said, citing a reduction in roadside and suicide bomb attacks, ambushes and other forms of intimidation.

Meanwhile, a newspaper quoted British Defense Secretary Des Browne as saying the country could be engaged in Afghanistan for decades.

"There is only so much our forces can achieve," Browne told People newspaper. "The job can only be completed by the international community working with the Afghan government and its army. It is a commitment which could last decades, although it will reduce over time."

Britain has had forces in Afghanistan since November 2001, when it participated in the U.S.-led operation to topple the Taliban. The country currently has about 7,700 military personnel serving there, most of them fighting in the country's volatile south.

Taliban militants killed eight officers in an attack Sunday on a police checkpoint in Kandahar province, said Sadullah Khan, a police officer in neighboring Neven district.

A suicide bomber killed another policeman and wounded eight other people when he blew himself up in a housing compound in the town of Lashkar Gah in neighboring Helmand province, officials said.

Associated Press Writer Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Netherlands contributed to this report.

Ellie