Soviet air force pilots accidentally bombed an Afghan military post they mistook for a rebel camp, killing about 100 soldiers two weeks ago, a Western diplomat said Tuesday.
It was not the first reported accidental bombing by the Soviets, who maintain an estimated 110,000 troops in mountainous Afghanistan to bolster Afghan troops against the rebels supported by the United States, China and Iran.
He and another diplomat, who spoke in separate briefings on condition of anonymity, also said Moslem guerrillas inflicted a ”severe defeat” on attacking Soviet forces in eastern Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan last month, killing 50 soldiers and capturing 22.
Their reports could not be confirmed independently because Western journalists have rarely been allowed into Afghanistan since the Soviet Union invasion in 1979, to support a communist government beset by internal feuds and a war with Moslem rebels.
