U.S.troops killed in Afghanistan by friendly-fire

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"A U.S. Marine reservist and a Navy corpsman were killed April 6 in a drone airstrike in Afghanistan, in an apparent case of friendly fire.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast reportedly were killed by a Hellfire missile fired from an Air Force Predator, NBC News first reported Monday.

Smith and Rast were part of a Marine unit moving in to reinforce Marines under heavy fire from enemy forces outside Sangin in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
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The Marines who were under fire saw “hot spots,” or infrared images, on streaming video relayed to them from a Predator overhead and mistakenly identified the “hot spots” as enemies, according to the NBC report.

It’s believed that this is the first time that U.S. servicemembers have been killed by a Predator in a friendly fire incident."
 

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