Polish soldiers face retrial in attack

WARSAW, Poland, March 14 (UPI) -- Four Polish soldiers face retrial in the 2007 attack in the Afghanistan village of Nangar Khel that killed six villagers, including children.

Three of soldiers were acquitted in the case, Polskie Radio reported.

A Warsaw court had acquitted all seven soldiers of war crimes in June after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence for a conviction. Prosecutor Jan Zak appealed the decision.

The soldiers from the 18th Airborne Assault Battalion shelled the village southeast of Afghanistan after an insurgent ambush on U.S. soldiers. The Polish troops became involved in a rescue operation.

Judge Wieslaw Brus found two Polish privates, Robert Boks and Jacek Janik, "were not intending to kill civilians" when they fired mortar shells and "were acting on orders, and had no reason to question them."

The judge said the soldiers had a legal obligation to carry out the orders.

Brus said Master Cpl. Tomasz Borysiewicz told the privates to fire the mortar shells. Borysiewicz's acquittal has been quashed, pending a hearing.