Afghan committee accuses NATO troops of killing 15 civilians

Feb 13, 2012, 14:26 GMT

Kabul - NATO-led troops killed fifteen civilians, including at least eight children, in airstrikes last week, an Afghan committee appointed to investigate the deaths said Monday.

The killings took place during two separate operations conducted by US, Afghan and French soldiers in the north-eastern province of Kapisa and the eastern province of Kunar.

Seven civilians were killed in Kunar during a joint Afghan-US night raid, according to lawmaker Maulavi Shehzada Shaid, who headed the committee in Kunar.

'Four members of one family, a man, his son and two nephews; another man with his wife and a villager were ruthlessly martyred by a US airstrike in the village,' Shehzada told reporters in Kabul. It was not clear exactly when the strike took place.

Eight children aged between six and 14 were killed early Tuesday in an airstrike ordered by French troops in a mountainous area in the Nijrab district of Kapisa, according to another member of the investigating team.

'French troops raided three houses including those belonging to two former Jihadi commanders,' said Mohammad Zahir Safi. They had only found an old mine, probably from the Russian era, and a machine gun which many rural Afghans keep in their homes, he added.

After the operation, the soldiers called an airstrike and bombed a group of eight children in the nearby area, he said.

'Who is taking care of these children's rights?,' he said, calling on international human rights bodies to investigate the incidents.

The operation was not coordinated with the local Afghan security forces and the local intelligence chief was against the operation, Zahir added.

A spokesman with the NATO-led international troops confirmed the incident in Kapisa.

NATO-led forces engaged with a group of men who were armed and engaging in unusual behaviour, General Carsten Jacobson said.

'Following the engagement additional casualties were discovered and these casualties were young Afghans of varying ages,' he said.

Any death of an innocent not associated with the armed conflict was a tragedy, he said. 'We simply are not yet certain how this happened.'

He said the investigation was ongoing. He did not comment on the Kunar incident.

Civilian casualties due to NATO airstrikes have been a serious issue of contention between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western military allies, with Karzai repeatedly asking the NATO-led alliance to stop the strikes.

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