Rozi Khan was a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

Barakzai Bārakzai ( ps, بارکزی, ''Bārakzay;'' plur. ps, بارکزي, ''Bārakzī'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day, Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. A ...

tribal leader in the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

province of Orūzgān. In the 1980s he was a Mujahideen commander fighting against the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in ...

. In 2001 he was appointed police chief of Orūzgān province by President Karzai, a position he held until 2006. He was made governor of Oruzgan's

Chora District Chora District is a district of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. The district center is the town of Chora, with a population of about 3,000. It is a rural town with no industry beyond livestock, agriculture, and small merchants. A ribbon-cutti ...

in mid-2008. Khan's loyalties were suspect, and he often changed sides in political and military struggles. Nevertheless, he was considered a hero in the Netherlands after coming to the assistance of a Dutch unit. Rozi Khan was killed by

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...

on 17 September 2008 in the town of Chora in firefight involving Australian SAS soldiers (part of the NATO-backed

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

). Rozi received a phone call from a friend who said his home was surrounded by armed men and he feared the Taliban had come to kill him. Rozi then grabbed his gun and, with two of his armed men, ran through the darkness towards his friend's home. There were several armed groups out that night, including Afghan National Police and an Australian special forces patrol. Seeing Rozi and his men heading towards them, the Australians thought they were insurgents and shot Rozi and his two men dead.

References

Pashtun people Year of birth missing 2008 deaths Military personnel killed by friendly fire {{Afghanistan-bio-stub