Two US soldiers were killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. Air Force Predator last week, in what appears to be the first “friendly fire” incident involving an unmanned aircraft.
They were part of a Marine unit moving in to reinforce fellow Marines under heavy fire from enemy forces outside Sangin in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The Marines under fire were watching streaming video of the battlefield being fed to them by an armed Predator overhead. They saw a number of “hot spots,” or infrared images, moving in their direction. Apparently believing that those “hot spots” were the enemy, they called in a Hellfire missile strike from the Predator.
The U.S. military is investigating the incident.