Bullets don’t recognize whether the person on target is a foe or a friend. They just kill. Wars or armed conflicts in any form, either friendly or vengeful, only bring chaos and destruction and nothing more. In another illustration to the point, an American fighter plane, in a nasty ‘friendly fire,’ yesterday killed allied soldiers in a joint military operation in volatile Afghanistan.
At least three British soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment were killed and two others seriously injured, after the US fighter planes (F-15), unintentionally, dropped a single 500lb bomb over the allied troops in the battle field. However, the fighter plane was called in to support UK troops, engaged in a fierce battle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.
This isn’t the lone accident (rather incident) when strategy in the ‘war on terror’ has backfired and killed their own troops or innocent residents, the local people have time and again accused that American Special Operations forces in the area uses aerial strikes very frequently, killing a number of innocent civilians and isolating the inhabitants.
While the United States Embassy in London has apologized and expressed condolence for the accidental episode, on the other, the Ministry of Defense in the UK, after facing severe criticism for failing to provide troops with technology to prevent such ‘friendly fires,’ called for an inquiry to find out whether the accident was the result of a communications or technical failure. The UK Ministry of Defense, in a statement, asserted,
During the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two US F-15 aircraft to repel the enemy. A single bomb was dropped and it is believed the explosion killed all three soldiers who were declared dead at the scene.
Considering the fact that the differences between the US and the UK officials have grown thick and fast, just after American commanders criticized the British performance in southern Iraq, in the recent past, the future coalition between the two major architects of the ‘war on terror’ doesn’t look too prominent.
The self-destructive episode has once again exposed the hasty and unplanned strategies and policies, more than once, of the US lead coalition in the war-torn region.
Though unintentional, the reckless incident isn’t in any way going to boost the spirits of the allied forces, already bogged down by prolonged deployments - miles away from family, friends and nation - in the unstable region.
