No reports air support resulted in French casualties: Pentagon

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon said Wednesday it has no information that close US air support resulted in casualties among French troops ambushed by insurgents in Afghanistan.

The newspaper Le Monde reported that French troops wounded in the fighting said NATO air strikes missed their targets and hit French troops, as did shots fired by Afghan troops backing them up.

"We have no reports of any casualties caused by close air support," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Asked whether French soldiers had been killed or wounded by friendly fire, he said there were "no reports of that."

Ten French paratroopers were killed and 21 wounded in an hours-long attack Monday by an insurgent force east of Kabul, the deadliest experienced by French forces since...