Two civilians killed by NATO forces in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Jan 17, 2010, 14:46 GMT

Kabul - Two civilians were killed and another wounded in separate incidents Sunday by NATO forces fearing suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan, officials said.

German soldiers operating in the northern city of Kunduz killed one civilian and wounded another, when the two men approached the soldiers in a car travelling at high speed, Mohammad Razaq Yaqoubi, Kunduz provincial police chief told the German Press Agency dpa.

The soldiers opened fire when the men refused to slow down, despite warnings, he said, adding that one man later died in a hospital.

German military authorities confirmed that their troops opened fire on the speeding vehicle.

Spokesman Jurgen Mertins noted that there had been threats of a suicide attack, which led the Germans to set up a checkpoint that snarled traffic. The vehicle that was fired upon had attempted to break out of the traffic snarl, he said.

Meanwhile in a similar incident, troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle that approached a NATO convoy in Garmsir district in Helmand province Sunday morning, the alliance said in a statement.

'The vehicle had no headlights, and was travelling at a high rate of speed at the time of the incident,' the statement said. 'After firing three to five rounds into the grill of the vehicle, it stopped.

'One civilian received a gunshot wound to the chest,' it said, adding that the man died of his wounds after he was evacuated to a military hospital.

Wary of suicide bombers, who often use explosive-filled vehicles to target international and Afghan military forces, NATO troops have killed dozens of civilians who failed to stop at checkpoints or who approach the convoys.

Meanwhile, an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head by insurgents on Saturday in Nad-e-Ali district died in a NATO hospital in the province, a military statement said, but did not provide further details.

More than 2,400 civilians were killed in attacks by insurgents or NATO troops in 2009, according to a recent UN report. Nearly 70 per cent of the casualties were inflicted by Taliban insurgents, while Afghan and NATO troops were responsible for 25 per cent of the deaths of civilians, it said.

In a separate incident, a US soldier died of wounds after a clash with Taliban insurgents Saturday, a military statement said.

The latest death took to 19 the number of foreign soldiers killed in January. A total of 520 NATO troops were killed in the conflict in 2009, the deadliest year for international forces since 2001.