Three Afghan children killed in NATO artillery attack (Roundup)

Sep 1, 2008, 13:43 GMT

Kabul - Three children were killed and seven were wounded in NATO artillery fire in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, while hundreds of demonstrators accused the US military for killing a father and his two sons in Kabul city, officials said.

Taliban insurgents fired on a NATO patrol in Gayan district in the south-eastern province of Paktika province on Monday, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

'When the first round of (retaliatory) artillery accidently landed too close to a Qalat, the ISAF soldiers immediately called 'check fire' to halt the artillery, but by that time, a second round was already fired,' it said.

The ISAF soldiers went to the area and 'found three dead children and seven wounded civilians', it said, adding that the wounded were evacuated to nearby hospitals.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan demonstrators took to the streets on Monday in Kabul, accusing US military forces of killing a man and his two children in a raid earlier that day, witnesses said.

The protestors, who were chanting anti-US military and anti-Afghan government slogans, blocked a road in Hudkhail, an area in the eastern outskirts of the Afghan capital, where several military bases of the NATO-led international forces are located.

'It was after midnight that the US soldiers blasted the gate of Noorullah's house by explosives and then entered his house, killing him and two of his children,' Ahmad Sabor, one of the protestors, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Sabor said that Noorullah's wife was wounded in the attack and the soldiers arrested three other male members of the family.

NATO officials and US military spokesmen were not available for comment.

'The two dead children were 2 years old and 9 months old,' Abdul Wakil, Noorullah's neighbour, said. 'Did the soldiers think they [the dead children] were terrorists? Or they knew that one day they will become Taliban? Then they should kill us all,' he added.

Tolo, a private TV channel, showed footage of the dead bodies, surrounded by angry protestors.

Repeated civilian casualties during the international military's operations against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda associates have angered Afghans, creating an apparent rift between the Afghan government and its foreign military backers.

Last month, Afghan and UN investigation teams found that more than 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in Shindand district of western Herat province in an air raid by US-led coalition forces.

The incident prompted President Hamid Karzai to fire two Afghan army commanders of the western region, while his cabinet ordered a review of foreign troops in the country, a resolution backed by Afghanistan's parliament.

Two children and a woman were killed in the northern Kunduz province Friday when NATO-led German forces opened fire at their vehicle after the driver failed to stop at a checkpoint.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to Afghan rights groups and an agency that coordinates aid in the country.

Monday's protestors burnt tires on Jalalabad road which links Kabul to the eastern provinces and where most of the suicide attacks against the foreign forces have taken place in the past.

'We will continue to block the road, until the killers are punished and the three prisoners are released,' Jamil Jan, another protestor, said.

Meanwhile, NATO officials in Afghanistan predicted the Taliban would make a 'propaganda claim' that the alliance's forces had killed up to 70 civilians in the southern province of Helmand, where coalition forces say that more than 220 militants were killed in a six-day operation.

A NATO-run hospital in Sangin district in Helmand province received more than 20 wounded local civilians on Sunday, treating the ones with severe wounds, while the rest were sent to local hospitals, the military said in statement on Monday.

The military later received information 'from a reliable source that insurgents are planning to make a propaganda claim that international military forces have killed up to 70 civilians in the same area,' NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

It said that the forces had no reports that would substantiate the claim, adding, 'ISAF condemns the use of the plight of innocent civilians for propaganda gain by insurgents.'