Death of US soldier investigated as friendly fire

The first US soldier killed during the Operation Anaconda assault on al-Qaida this month in Afghanistan may have been hit by friendly fire, officials disclosed today.

Previously, it had been thought that the soldier, Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, 34, of Wade, North Carolina, had been killed by an enemy attack on March 2 on a convoy of U.S. and Afghan forces at the beginning of the operation in eastern Afghanistan’s Shah-e-kot valley.