Courtesy of MON

A day after whistle-blowing site Wikileaks published more than 90,000 classified US military records detailing the war in Afghanistan, new information has come to light concerning the infamous “massacre” in Nangar Khel involving Polish troops.

On the morning of August 16, 2007, Polish military vehicles came under fire. Later that day, Polish soldiers allegedly spotted insurgents in the same area, were fired upon and returned fire. They then launched 60mm mortar rounds in the direction of the insurgents.

According the US incident report posted on Wikileaks, “[The Polish soldiers] fired a total of 26 rounds according to one report. They fired over and then short and then three rounds impacted within a compound. One impacted on the roof of the house, one impacted in the court yard, and the last went through the roof and detonated within the house. There was a wedding celebration going on in the house, which explains the high number of casualties.”

One man, four women and a baby were killed in the attack. Three other women were injured, including one nine-months pregnant (the child died after an “emergency c-section,” although it's not clear in the reports if this is the same casualty as the aforementioned baby).

The Polish media later reported that the Polish soldiers' attack had been premeditated before they had left their base, although civilian casualties appeared not to have been the goal of the orders.

A Polish investigation linked seven members of the Polish military with the attacks. A trial to determine their guilt began in February 2009 and is ongoing. The defendants face prison sentences of between 12 years and life for the killing of civilians and/or firing on an unarmed target.

It is unclear whether the Wikileaks documents will have any affect on the court proceedings.

Agent's name leaked

Another revelation contained in the incident reports is the name and rank of the Polish counter-intelligence officer involved in the investigation of Nangar Khel. The publication of this information is a crime in Poland, carrying a sentence of five to eight years in prison.

It is also a crime in the United States, as evidenced by the Valerie Plame investigation of 2003, which resulted in the imprisonment of George W Bush aide Scooter Libby (although he was admittedly not convicted for leaking Ms Plame's status as a CIA agent).