SAS may have shot Afghan governor
Brendan Nicholson and Ben Doherty
September 20, 2008
AUSTRALIAN special forces in Afghanistan have been involved in a disastrous incident in which a district governor, war hero and close ally of President Hamid Karzai has been shot dead.

The Australian Defence Force confirmed yesterday that Chora district governor and tribal leader Rozi Khan was one of several Afghans shot dead on Wednesday night. It said it was investigating whether he had been killed by the Australians' gunfire.

President Karzai expressed his deep sorrow over the governor's death, which he said appeared to be the result of a misunderstanding.

The ADF said in a statement that its soldiers had returned fire in self defence after being shot at from several locations during an operation in Oruzgan province.

Oruzgan police chief Gulab Khan said it appeared that the governor was killed when he went to the home of a friend who had called him to say he feared Taliban forces had surrounded his home.

But it is understood that the men outside the home were Australians, and when they were fired on they assumed the attackers were Taliban.

Mr Khan was elected governor in June in a poll monitored by Dutch troops who share the base at Tarin Kowt with the Australians.

He was considered a hero after leading 500 of his tribesmen to support hard-pressed Dutch troops under attack by the Taliban in the nearby Chora Valley last year.

The Dutch media was last night mourning the loss of one the Netherlands' "bravest allies".

NATO said five people were killed in a "possible friendly fire incident" including three members of the Afghan National Police.

The incident will worsen tensions between the Afghan Government and foreign troops over the high number of civilians being killed in the war. Nearly 1500 have died so far this year.

This week in Canberra, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and his French counterpart, Herve Morin, stressed that avoiding civilian casualties would be crucial to winning over the Afghan population.

The ADF said it was working closely with international security forces and Afghan investigators and would carry out a full investigation of its own.

Its initial understanding was that a patrol from the Special Operations Task Group, which is made up of SAS troops and commandos, was on foot when the soldiers were fired on from a number of locations by unknown attackers.

The patrol returned fire, the ADF said. It appeared that the Australians acted in accordance with their rules of engagement and that their actions were appropriate and proportionate in a complex and lethal environment, a statement said.

"The ADF can confirm that Chora district governor and tribal leader Rozi Khan was among those killed. It is not possible at this time to determine that he was killed by ADF fire."

The ADF said a number of groups, including Afghan National Police personnel, were in the vicinity of the incident.

No ADF personnel were wounded but it appeared that a number of local nationals were killed or wounded in the exchange of fire and their identities would be determined as part of the investigations. "Australian forces make every effort to minimise the risk of any damage, injury or loss of life to non-combatants," it said.

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