The Taliban must be smiling into their beards . In an incident which would have seemed funny if so many lives had not been lost , US coalition forces and Afghan policemen waged fierce battle against each other . It happened in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan . The allied forces were on a night mission to bust a Taliban hideout . They came across a police checkpost and in a comedy of errors each thought the other was the Taliban . In the fierce fighting which ensued the valiant policemen furiously fired off 49 of the 50 rocket propelled grenades they had and called frantically for reserves . The US led force was equally adamant and called for air support . In the three hour battle eight Afghan police officers died .
The whole ghastly misunderstanding occurred because the coalition forces are hesitant to inform the Afghans about any such operation coming up fearing leaks which might alert the Taliban . The lack of trust and lack of communication has had many sad results before .
The night operations specially by the US special forces have been severely criticized for the civilian casualties it has caused . The Upper House of the Afghan parliament recently passed a motion that the coalition soldiers only open fire if attacked or the Afghan agencies be well informed of any forthcoming military operation . But it lies stalled in the Lower House .
US soldiers had caused a similar outrage in March when 19 people died and 50 were injured while they were fleeing from a suicide bomb site .
Noorallah who lives in a village nearby echoed the anger of the Afghans at the sad turn of events ,
The Americans are here for destruction. They are not here for reconstruction. Look, they are killing our innocent police. They cannot kill Taliban but they are firing at our police
