Global General

NATO and Afghan raid kills girl, policeman

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-12 15:55

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says its troops and Afghan forces mistakenly killed a young girl and a man who turned out to be a police officer during an overnight raid in eastern Afghanistan.

A NATO statement Thursday says a combined NATO-Afghan force was pursuing a Taliban leader in Nangarhar province's Surkh Rod district on Wednesday, when a man came out of the targeted house threatening them with a gun.

It says the troops killed the man and then discovered he was a police officer. The troops also shot at someone running out of the back of the compound who they believed had a weapon. The soldiers later realized there was no weapon and that they had killed "an unarmed Afghan female adolescent."

A neighbor, who goes by the name of Ayatullah, says the girl was 12 years old.