The soldiers told the newspaper they waited for four hours for back-up after being ambushed

AFP and al-Jazeera are reporting that the French army refuses to comment on a report in Le Monde that

the 10 French soldiers actually were killed by a NATO airstrike responding to the initial attack by

militants.

The soldiers told the newspaper they waited for four hours for back-up after being ambushed. But when

NATO planes finally arrived they hit French troops after missing their target, the newspaper quoted the

soldiers as saying. The report added that Afghan soldiers sent in as backup also mistakenly targeted

the French soldiers.

A NATO official said on Wednesday: “I have nothing substantive to confirm or deny this particular

suggestion. “We are aBOOTSBUYe of the media reports and therefore we have to look into it.” The

official said the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) “would probably defer in the first

instance to the French authorities,” in the investigation.

Junior Defense Minister Jean-Marie Bockel, asked to comment on Le Monde‘s report, said: “this is not

the time for polemics, this is a day of compassion, of national unity around our soldiers.”