Nato air strike kills four Afghan police

An air strike by foreign forces overnight killed four Afghan policemen, a governor in the country's troubled east said on Monday.

The incident happened at a police post in rugged and insurgency-hit Nuristan, the province's governor Jamaluddin Badr said, adding the strike was based on "wrong intelligence".

A spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul could not confirm any details but said it was "looking into the matter".

Badr said foreign forces detained police officers at the post in Wama district after the strike.

"Nato coalition helicopters bombed our police post. Four policemen were killed, two were injured and the remaining 12 police were detained and taken to Bagram," the governor told AFP, referring to the giant international military base near Kabul.

"I don't know who provided them with the wrong intelligence," he added, saying the officers wore police uniforms and an Afghan flag was flying at the post when they were attacked.

In response, an ISAF spokesman said: "We are aware of statements of Afghan officials in Nuristan alleging friendly fire. Currently we're looking into the matter."

Friendly fire deaths are relatively frequent in Afghanistan, where foreign and Afghan forces are battling a 10-year insurgency led by the Taliban.

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