US Aircraft Kills 12 Afghan Policemen

KABUL — At least twelve Afghan policemen were killed and two were wounded on Thursday, August 17, after a US warplane dropped a bomb on a police convoy in eastern Paktika province, while a former CIA contractor was found guilty of assaulting an Afghan prisoner who later died of his injuries.

"They came under US bombardment and 12 policemen were killed, including the police commander," provincial border police regiment commander Abdul Hamid told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He said the US-led forces battling Taliban fighters in the province had apparently come under attack earlier.

"They may have mistaken our convoy for the enemy."

The United States has 23,000 troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since it invaded the country to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001.

"Event"

Colonel Thomas Collins, a spokesman for the US-led forces, said "an event did happen" without elaborating.

"It is under investigation. We are scrambling to get the details."

Paktika governor Akram Ekhpul Wak told Reuters the provincial government would set up an inquiry into the incident.

Afghanistan's parliament has recently approved a motion urging the prosecution of US soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash which set off angry public protests nationwide.

A US military vehicle ploughed into a dozen of vehicles in the capital Kabul on Monday, May 29, killing at least five Afghan civilians.

The incident sent thousands of angry Afghans into the streets of Kabul, hurling stones at the US convoy and smashing vehicle windows.

Prisoner Assault

Meanwhile, a former CIA contractor was found guilty on Thursday of assaulting an Afghan prisoner who later died in a case that raised new questions about the treatment of detainees by US interrogators.

David Passaro, a former Special Forces medic, was convicted on one felony charge of assault causing serious injury and three misdemeanor counts of simple assault.

He was the first civilian to be charged with abusing a detainee in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During a trial that started on August 7, prosecutors said Passaro beat Abdul Wali so badly he pleaded to be shot to end his pain.

Wali died of his injuries two days after the interrogation in June 2003.

Guidelines given to interrogators have been an issue since a scandal broke at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.

Prisoners released from the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba also complained of torture and abuse.

Critics say US government guidelines on what constitutes torture issued since the 9/11 attacks have created a climate in which abuses of detainees have flourished.