Afghan officials: Ten civilians killed in NATO airstrike (Roundup)

Sep 2, 2010, 14:24 GMT

Kunduz, Afghanistan - Afghan officials, including the presidential palace, said 10 civilians were killed Thursday in a NATO airstrike on vehicles in northern Afghanistan, but the alliance said those killed were insurgents.

NATO helicopters opened fire as people were travelling to a campaign gathering in the northern province of Takhar ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections, a provincial government spokesman said.

Faiz Mohammad Tauhidi, spokesman for Takhar's governor, said the strike in the Rastaq district killed 10 people and injured candidate Abdul Wahid Khurasani and another campaigner

President Hamid Karzai 'strongly condemned' the attack in a statement issued by his office and urged NATO forces to refrain from conducting anti-terrorism operations in Afghan villages.

Three vehicles were destroyed in the raid, Rastaq Governor Mahlem Hussain said. He also confirmed the death toll provided by the provincial spokesman.

However, a NATO statement said the alliance's planes targeted a six-vehicle convoy carrying a senior member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was assessed to be the deputy shadow governor of Takhar.

The insurgent leader, who came to Afghanistan from Pakistan this spring to coordinate attacks in the region, had been tracked for days, it said.

'The security force was unable to immediately dispatch a ground force to assess the results, but initial reflections indicate eight to 12 insurgents were killed or injured in the strike, including a Taliban commander,' it said. 'Multiple passengers of the vehicle were positively identified carrying weapons.'

No foreign troops are stationed in relatively peaceful Takhar. The German military, which leads NATO forces in northern Afghanistan, is mainly responsible for security in the province. Hundreds of US troops were also sent to the region earlier this year to help provide better security.

The provincial governor dispatched an investigative team including a provincial police chief, to Kewan, the remote area in Rastaq where the attack took place, Tauhidi said.

The NATO statement said the alliance was aware of allegations of civilian deaths but insisted that the vehicles were far away from populated areas and the occupants had been tracked by intelligence agents for days before execution of the attack.

Civilian casualties during NATO's anti-Taliban operations have always been a source of tension between it and the Afghan government.

Thursday's attack came nearly one year after a US military airstrike ordered by German troops killed scores of people, including at least 30 civilians.

The September 4, 2009, strike prompted political debates in Germany regarding the role of its military in Afghanistan and led to the resignation of the German defence minister.

General David Petraeus, the top NATO and US military commander in Afghanistan, recently issued guidelines for the 150,000 foreign troops in the country, ordering them to make protecting civilian the priority of their mission against Taliban-led insurgents.

With less than three weeks until Afghanistan's second parliamentary elections since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, candidates have expressed concerns about security on the polling day. At least four candidates and more than a dozen of their campaigners have been killed in insurgent attacks in recent weeks.

Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the elections and threatened Afghans not to take part in the US-organized process.