Families of Afghan National Police force members killed in a U.S. airstrike in Helmand province on Friday asked government to punish those behind the incident.

At least 16 policemen were killed in a ‘friendly fire’ airstrike in Gereshk district.

“Fighting started on Friday morning and was still ongoing by the afternoon but foreign forces did not interfere. When the village was cleared, they (foreign forces) conducted the airstrike. Those ordered the strike should be brought to justice,” said Haji Abdulhai, family member of one of the policemen.

“They were very good soldiers and from my family, five people were killed,” another family member of the policemen Haji Mohammad Jan said. “We will leave our district if government does not investigate the incident.” 

Helmand police headquarters and foreign troops said a team has been assigned to probe the incident.

The soldiers were killed in Parchaw village in Gereshk district after they took control of the area.

According to Helmand soldiers and residents of the village, the U.S. forces’ airstrike targeted a number of check posts of security forces.

“The policemen were here in this house which was bombarded and all of them were killed,” Noor Mohammad, a soldier said, talking about the incident. 

“I was about 50 or 60 meters away from the area which was targeted by the airstrike. I heard soldiers were shouting following the airstrike,” an eyewitness and resident of Gereshk, Janan said. “I told my brother let’s go and ask what has happened. When we arrived there, 10 people were killed and I took them out of water and there were other soldiers’ bodies. I collected my brother’s body which was divided into pieces.”

Helmand Police Chief Gen. Abdul Ghafar Safi confirmed that 16 ANP personnel including police officers were killed in the air raid.

Dozens of Taliban fighters attacked parts of Gereshk on Friday and captured a number of villages, the police chief said, adding that the foreign forces bombarded a village in which police forces were stationed after they retook the areas from the militants.

“We confirm that the security forces were targeted from the air and we have started investigation in this respect,” he added.

The Interior Ministry has said that the incident has taken place “due to wrong coordination”. 

This comes after the United States Forces in Afghanistan in a statement on Saturday confirmed the casualties resulting from the strike. However, the statement did not mention about the exact number of the losses in the incident. 

“We can confirm local security personnel aligned with Afghan government forces were killed in an airstrike in Greshk district of Helmand province,” statement said.

The statement said the U.S. forces notified Afghan officials of the incident and also an investigation will be conducted to determine the specific circumstances that led to the incident.