US killed 50 kids - Afghan govt
2008-08-23 14:24
Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on
Saturday condemned a US-led coalition air strike his
government says killed 76 civilians, most of them women and
children.
Civilian casualties are an emotive issue for Afghans, many
of whom feel foreign forces take too little care when launching
air strikes. Support for the presence of international troops
is waning and anti-US demonstrations broke out on Saturday.
The issue has also led to a rift between the Afghan
government and its Western backers, with Karzai saying recently
that foreign air strikes have achieved nothing but the deaths
of civilians.
"Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemns the
uncoordinated air strike by coalition forces in Shindand
district of Herat province which resulted in the death of at
least 70 people including women and children," the president's
office said in a statement.
The US military says only armed Taliban militants were
killed in Friday's attack.
Nearly 700 civilians were killed in the first six months of
this year, 255 of them by Afghan government and international
troops, the rest by Taliban militants, the United Nations says.
Aircraft targeted a known Taliban commander in the district
in the early hours of Friday after Afghan and coalition forces
came under attack from insurgents, the US military said.
Thirty militants, including a Taliban commander were killed
in the strike and only two civilians had been wounded, it said.
The Interior Ministry said coalition forces bombarded the
Azizabad area of Shindand district on Friday afternoon, killing
76 civilians, including nineteen women, seven men and the rest
children under the age of 15.
The US military said it was aware of allegations of
civilian casualties but said those killed were militants.
"Our reports from our own forces on the ground are only, so
far, that those killed in the strikes were 30 and they were all
militants," said a US military spokesperson.
"All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very
seriously. Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the
injury or loss of innocent lives," the US military said in a
statement. "An investigation has been directed," it said.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Shindand district on
Saturday, shouting anti-US slogans, after Afghan soldiers
arrived in the area to bring aid to the victim's families, a
village elder told Reuters.
- Reuters