South Asia News
French NATO forces kill Afghan pregnant woman, two others
Jul 28, 2011, 7:51 GMT
Kabul - NATO-led French forces shot dead three civilians including a pregnant woman in northern Afghanistan, officials said.
The troops apparently mistook the victim's vehicle for a suicide car bomber and opened fire on it, killing a pregnant woman, a child and a man, the president's office said in a statement late Wednesday.
The incident took place early Wednesday in Alasai district, Kapisa province, Lieutenant Colonel Eric de Lapresle, a spokesman for the French troops in the country, said on Thursday.
'The soldiers feared it was a suicide car bomber. They asked the car to stop but the car did not stop,' he said. Three other civilians were injured, he said.
He said that the soldiers, who were on patrol, fired a warning shot but the car started to move towards them. After the shooting, it appeared that there had been no insurgents in the car, he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in the statement saying, 'no apology could bring the dead back.'
Civilian causalities at the hands of international forces have been an increasingly sensitive issue and a source of tension between the Afghan president and his western allies.
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