Taliban Prisoners Killed in ‘Friendly Fire’ Attack
At least 90 Taliban soldiers were killed by “friendly fire” when Taliban jets inadvertently bombed sites in northern Afghanistan where they were being held prisoner, an opposition general said Friday.
The deaths occurred Thursday and Friday during raids against an opposition stronghold in the Faryab provincial capital of Meymaneh, said Gen. Humauun Fowzie, who was interviewed via satellite telephone.
The opposition responded late Friday with a bombing attack against Kabul’s airport, but there were no reports of casualties.
Fowzie said at least 40 Taliban troops died Friday when a bomb struck the building where hundreds of Taliban troops were being held. Fifty prisoners were killed in an attack a day earlier.
A Taliban spokesman, Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mukakhiel, confirmed the bombing of Meymaneh and accused the opposition of putting prisoners in harm’s way.
The Taliban army, which controls two-thirds of Afghanistan, has imposed a strict version of Islamic law on the territory it controls.
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