No comment on report NATO jets hit French troops in Afghanistan

Paris. The French army refused to comment Tuesday on a report that French soldiers were hit by NATO planes that had come to help them escape a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan which left 10 of their men dead, AFP reports.
"Each thing in its proper time... there is a time for compassion, for solidarity... we will learn the lessons of this event," said army chief of staff General Elrick Irastorza.
He was responding to a report in France’s Le Monde newspaper that quoted French soldiers who had survived the ambush Monday near Kabul.
The soldiers said that once they had fallen into the ambush they had to wait for four hours before any backup was sent.
"We had no more ammunition for our other weapons and we were left only with our Famas (assault rifles)," one soldier, who was not named, was quoted as saying.
When NATO planes finally arrived to help them they sometimes missed their target and hit French troops, the paper quotes the soldiers as saying.


a militarily unwinnable war

Learn more

  Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan fighting fit (Sofia Echo.com)
  Bulgarian President sends a letter of condolence to his French counterpart (Focus News, Bulgaria)
  French defense minister Hervé Morin says better intelligence needed (AP)
  Des soldats français blessés en Afghanistan évoquent des erreurs de commandement (L’Express)
  No reports air support resulted in French casualties : Pentagon (AFP)
  NATO examines friendly fire report in French deaths (National Post)
  Liberation’s editorial asks how it can be possible "to win a militarily unwinnable war". (The Guardian)
  Sarkozy said he had no regrets about sending 700 more troops to Kabul (Aljazeera)