Airstrike Complicates Afghanistan Fight

By RICHARD A. OPPEL JR.
NYT

KABUL – If the accounts provided today by top Afghan officials are accurate, the first NATO airstrike gone awry under the new command of Gen. David H. Petraeus killed five Afghan soldiers who seemed to be doing precisely the sort of operation that not enough ever do: Setting a trap – in the middle of the night, no less – to catch or kill militants in a dangerous part of the country where the Taliban are strong.

The American and NATO exit strategy hinges on Afghan troops becoming competent and fearless enough to defend their own country without Western forces holding their hand – or leading the charge – every step of the way. Almost nine years into the occupation, they have fallen woefully short of that. But in the explanation provided Wednesday by the spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense – but not confirmed yet by western military officials, who have sent officers to investigate – the Afghan troops killed early this morning had been setting an ambush for militants when nearby NATO troops wrongly assumed they were insurgents and called in a helicopter to attack them with high-powered rocket fire.

So while the casualty toll was far less than airstrikes that have incinerated scores of civilians, the killing of what appeared to be an intrepid squad of Afghan troops was a particularly hard blow, and a reminder of just how much is at stake in General Petraeus’ current review of rules governing how hard and fast American and NATO troops can attack perceived threats on the ground.

(More here.)