Coalition forces defended their reliance on air power in Afghanistan today, two days after the US war plane mistakenly dropped a 500lb bomb on a British patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding two more.
British and American officials were investigating Thursday's so-called friendly fire incident, which comes amid growing concerns by Afghan authorities about civilian deaths from US airstrikes in the country.
The F15 aircraft dropped a single bomb after British troops called for airstrikes during an intense battle with Taliban insurgents north-west of Kajaki, a militant hotspot in southern Helmand province.
Colonel Martin Schelleis, chief spokesman of Nato's 37-nation strong mission in the country, said air strikes were essential to the mission given the limited number of ground troops and rugged Afghan terrain.
"You cannot do it all with ground troops," he told a media conference. "If a ground unit cannot defeat an attack, they regularly call for air support because of its inherent strength. Air support is an integral part of the operation."
Schelleis said the investigation into the incident would take "considerable time", but declined to speculate on the cause. He said the probe would look at possible technical, human or procedural errors.
British troops have been battling insurgents for months in Kajaki, where repairs are taking place on a hydroelectric dam that could supply close to two million Afghans with electricity.
In 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed when an American F-16 pilot on a night patrol dropped a 500lb bomb on Canadian troops conducting a live-fire training exercise near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
The pilot apparently mistook the Canadians for enemy forces, US officials have said.
In August 2006, a bomb mistakenly dropped by coalition aircraft killed 10 Afghan police officers on a patrol in the country's south east. The cause of that incident has never been established.
The British soldiers killed were named by the Ministry of Defence today as privates Aaron James McClure, Robert Graham Foster and John Thrumble of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.