KABUL, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban instead of foreign forces had killed five Afghan policemen, a police officer said on Saturday, revising his first account of the incident.

    Taliban militants killed five policemen on patrol on Thursday night in Gereshk district of the southern Helmand province, deputy provincial police chief Isa Khan told Xinhua after an investigation into the incident was carried out.

    The militants also attacked a police checkpoint in the district and took away six policemen, he added.

    NATO troops arrived at the sites shortly after the clashes, Khan said, adding that they didn't kill the policemen.

    On Friday, Khan said five policemen were killed and six others went missing overnight in Gereshk as a result of friendly fire from NATO troops, while Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashari said the five policemen were killed by the U.S.-led coalition troops.

    However, both the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and coalition troops rejected any involvement in the reported incident.

    "We have closely reviewed various reports and the positions of ISAF forces," said ISAF spokesman Tom Collins. "All indications are that no ISAF forces were involved in this unfortunate incident."

    William Mitchell, a coalition spokesman, told Xinhua, "In our understanding, no U.S. or coalition forces were involved in the incident in Gereshk."

    Foreign troops stationed in this country either belong to the 36,000-strong ISAF or the 12,000-strong coalition forces.