Afghan police mistakenly kill seven civilians

KANDAHAR - Seven Afghan civilians were killed when security forces opened after mistaking them as insurgents, police said Saturday.

The villagers were gathering wood near the Pakistan border at the time of the incident.

All six officers involved in Friday’s predawn shooting have been arrested and a probe was launched, said General Abdul Raziq, commander of border police in southern Afghanistan.

The Afghan-Pakistan border area is a common transit route for both Taliban militants and smugglers, and the police in the area regularly come under attack, the Online news agency reported.

The officers were driving through the Shorabak district in Kandahar province when they spotted the group of seven men and thought they were about to be ambushed, Raziq said.

They started shooting from about 400 meters away and discovered they were not militants when they went to recover the bodies. None of them were armed, he said.