NATO strike likely killed 25 civilians
KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO forces said Friday they were investigating reports that 25 Afghan civilians were killed in overnight airstrikes in southern Afghanistan.
The mounting civilian casualty toll in Afghanistan is eroding public support for the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
After the report of the latest deaths, Karzai told the BBC that accidental killings and injuries of civilians at the hands of coalition forces are “difficult for us to accept or understand.”
The Afghan leader repeatedly has appealed to international forces to exercise greater caution during clashes in civilian areas. NATO has blamed the Taliban for intentionally using civilians as shields.
It was the second report this week of multiple civilian casualties in airstrikes aimed at insurgents. On Monday, seven children ages 10 to 16 were killed when U.S. forces bombed a compound that they said militants were using as a hideout.
The latest incident occurred in Helmand province, in the former Taliban heartland that recently has been the scene of heavy fighting between NATO forces and insurgents.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that Western and Afghan troops were attacked Thursday night by Taliban fighters about 10 miles northeast of Gereshk. In response, the NATO forces called in an airstrike on a compound where about 30 insurgents were thought to be hiding.
“We are concerned about reports that some civilians may have lost their lives during this attack,” said Lt. Col. Mike Smith, a spokesman for Western forces in the South. “However, it must be noted that it was the insurgents who initiated this attack. … The risk to civilians was probably deliberate.”
Counts of civilian deaths in Western military operations vary. A consortium of aid groups last week put the toll so far this year at 230. Other independent estimates are in the range of about 175, including the latest reported casualties.
About the same number of noncombatants are thought to have died this year in attacks by insurgents, including suicide bombings, which generally are aimed at Western and Afghan forces but often kill civilian bystanders.
About 28,000 U.S. troops are serving in Afghanistan, together with 20,000 from other NATO countries. Most instances of large-scale civilian fatalities have involved U.S. forces.
Senior U.S. commanders apologized after an incident in March in which U.S. troops fired on civilians on a busy highway near the eastern city of Jalalabad after their convoy came under attack. At least 19 people were killed, and Afghan officials and human-rights groups said the soldiers had fired indiscriminately at civilian vehicles and passers-by.