An air attack killed at least 11 Afghan police officers in the volatile and opium-rich southern province of Helmand, officials said Monday, but there were conflicting claims over who carried out the bombardment. The Afghan interior ministry spokesman said the strike on Sunday during a police operation against drug smugglers was carried out by Nato forces, which rejected the claim in a statement.
Afghanistan's own air force also has the capability to carry out aerial attacks, but both the force and the defence ministry declined to comment. "Eleven counter-narcotics police were killed and four others were wounded in an air strike carried out by international forces in Garmsir district of Helmand province," deputy interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP. A Helmand police department official gave a higher death toll, saying 14 bodies had so far been recovered from the site of the bombardment.
But a Nato spokesman said there were no coalition airstrikes in Helmand on Sunday, adding that there was one in neighbouring Kandahar province to "eliminate threats to the force". Helmand, the heartland of the global opium trade, is one of the biggest flashpoints in the 14-year Taliban insurgency that erupted after a US-led invasion brought down their regime in 2001.