Kabul, Nov 3 (DPA) An unmanned US drone crashed in southern Afghanistan Sunday, while NATO forces wounded five Afghan troops in a seperate incident in the eastern part of the country, officials said.The cause of the crash of MQ-1 Predator drone was not known, a US military statement said. The drones are mostly used by US-led coalition forces to attack Taliban insurgent positions in remote areas of the country.

Meanwhile, NATO forces wounded five Afghan army soldiers after they mistook them for insurgents in the eastern province of Kunar Sunday, the alliance said in a statement.

The Afghan army troops were on a patrol in the Pech district of the province in the vicinity of a NATO combat outpost, the statement said, adding that the NATO troops fired on “what they suspected were anti-Afghan Forces within the area”.

The Afghan defence ministry condemned the injuries to its five soldiers and urged the alliance commander in the country to prevent future such incidents which “are not acceptable for Afghan forces”.

Increased Afghan security forces’ casualties inflicted by the international forces could strain relations between the two military allies in the war against terrorism.

On Oct 22, nine Afghan army soldiers were killed when the US military bombed their position in the neighbouring Khost province.