NATO said it "accidentally killed" five Afghan soldiers during an air strike in the Afghanistan eastern province of Logar on Thursday, the AP reported.
A total of 17 other people were injured in the NATO-led strike that occurred around 3:30 a.m., Reuters reported. At least eight soldiers were seriously wounded.
"Dead bodies and wounded personnel have been transferred to Kabul," the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, admitted the deaths were unintended and that an investigation is on the way.
"This attack, NATO has admitted to me they did it mistakenly. We will investigate the issue and then speak about it," Karzai said during a visit to Sri Lanka, the AP reported.
Karzai also said that had he been speaking to reporters in Afghanistan, he would have said something much different. A spokesman for Karzai gave a more blunt statement.
"We condemn the attack on the Afghan National Army in Logar," spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters.
Faizi said the attack targeted a new Afghan army outpost, according to Reuters. Karzai is against NATO's friendly targeted airstrikes, which apparently has delayed his signing of a bilateral security agreement that would keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan at the end of the year.
Major Cathleen Snow, a spokeswoman for the international forces in Afghanistan, told the AP they offer their condolences to the victims' families. Snow did not specifically say if the deaths were caused by the strike.
"We confirm that at least five Afghan National Army personnel were accidentally killed this morning," Snow said. "Our condolences go out to the families of the ANA soldiers who lost their lives and were wounded."
Karzai previously ordered that NATO can only carryout airstrikes if they are approved by the defense ministry, the AP reported.
"The worries of the president, Ministry of Defense and the Afghan people are (about) civilian casualties in an airstrike," Zahir Azimi, a defense ministry spokesman, told Reuters.
Azimi did not say if they were asked for permission before Thursday's strike.
