KABUL - SEVEN members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a Nato air strike in remote western Afghanistan, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

'Due to a Nato forces air strike on November 6 in Badghis province seven Afghan security personnel (both Afghan army and national police) were martyred and also some were wounded,' the ministry said in a statement.

'The commando brigade informs us that foreign forces also sustained some casualties,' it said, adding: 'The issue is under investigation by Afghan and Nato forces and the results will be announced soon.'

The statement came as Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating an incident Friday in which more than 25 international and Afghan forces were killed or wounded. Five of the wounded were US soldiers, injured in what a Western military official, speaking anonymously, said was friendly fire.

However, ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician, of the US Air Force, told AFP: 'We have nothing to confirm friendly fire.' 'No ISAF members were killed,' he said, confirming that five injured ISAF soldiers were Americans.

A later ISAF statement said 'ISAF and Afghan authorities are currently investigating whether some of the casualties were caused by ISAF close air support.' It said the incident occurred during a clash involving ISAF and Afghan soldiers searching for two soldiers who went missing Wednesday while attempting to recover airdropped supplies from a river in western Afghanistan. -- AFP