Two US soldiers were killed and 20 others were wounded when a 2,000-pound bomb was dropped mistakenly by a US B-52 bomber north of Kandahar, in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Wednesday.
An unknown number of Afghan opposition fighters were also killed and wounded when the B-52 "dropped ordnance in close proximity to friendly forces" at around 0530 GMT, Air Force Major Cynthia Colin told AFP.
The US casualties were being evacuated to Forward Operating Base Rhino, south of Kandahar, for initial medical treatment, she added.
The US B-52 bomber was operating in support of opposition Afghan forces north of Kandahar -- the last stronghold of Afghanistan's former ruling militia the Taliban -- in a US-led war in response to September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
The type of bomb dropped by the B-52 was a 900-kilogram (2,000-pound) joint direct attack munition, known as GBU-31, the spokeswoman said.
The deaths of the two American soldiers brought to three the number of US combat deaths in Afghanistan after the killing of a CIA operative in a prison riot near Mazar-i-Sharif late last month -- AFP
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