NATO to look into killings of five Afghan civilians (Roundup)

Feb 24, 2011, 12:37 GMT

Kabul - The NATO-led security force in Afghanistan said it would investigate an allegation that fire from one of its helicopters killed five civilians Thursday, including two children, after mistaking them for militants.

The pre-dawn strike happened as the civilians were climbing a mountain to hunt birds in the Ala Sai district of the north-eastern province of Kapisa, said Mullah Mohammad Omari, the district chief.

'Three of the men were carrying hunting guns, and the NATO helicopter mistook them for militants,' Omari said.

Taliban militants are active in the Dra Shepi area, where the incident took place, he said.

The dead included a father, his 12-year-old son and 13-year-old nephew, Omari said.

'The government has banned hunting in this area because of the presence of enemies, but these families are very poor,' he said. 'They don't have meat for months, so I can't really blame them.'

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was aware of the allegation that civilians were killed in the operation and were looking into it.

'There was an air-to-ground engagement in Kapisa province early on Thursday that targeted armed insurgents,' Major Michael Johnson said.

Johnson added that an ISAF team dispatched Saturday had nearly completed its investigations into an Afghan government allegation that a large number of civilians were killed during ISAF airstrikes last week in the eastern province of Kunar.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the ISAF operation, which allegedly killed about 50 civilians, including 20 women and an unknown number of children.

The Afghan government and human rights groups have been critical of civilian casualties during operations by the nearly 150,000 foreign soldiers based in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Rights Monitor, a human rights group in Kabul, blamed US and NATO forces for 512 civilian deaths in 2010 - at least 217 in airstrikes and 192 in shootings.

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