Nato airstrike kills 10 Afghan civilians
2013-02-13 19:27
Kabul - A Nato airstrike struck two houses, killing 10
Afghan civilians and four insurgents near the Pakistani border, officials said on
Wednesday.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, the latest
in a series of civilian casualty reports that have raised tensions between the
Afghans and the US-led foreign forces.
The attack occurred about 22:00 on Tuesday during a joint
Nato-Afghan operation in the Shigal district of Kunar province, a lawmaker from
the area said.
The US-led military alliance in Kabul said only that it
was looking into the reports.
Wagma Sapay, a member of parliament from Kunar, said the
civilians killed were in one house while four senior Taliban leaders were slain
as they were gathering next door in the Chawkam area.
Karzai's office said 10 civilians, including women and
children were killed, and four were wounded.
It said a delegation was sent to the site to investigate.
The statement said Karzai "strongly condemns"
the airstrike and "emphasises that the fight against terrorism is not in
the house and villages of Afghan people."
Provincial Police Chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said those
killed included five boys, four women and one man.
The governor of Kunar, Sayed Fazelullah Wahidi, said the
local government had not been informed about plans for the strike.
"This operation was by coalition and Afghan
forces," he said. "We were not aware of it."
The killing of civilians at the hands of US and other
foreign forces has been one of the most contentious issues in the 11-year war.
Jamie Graybeal, a spokesperson for the International
Security Assistance Force (Isaf), said the alliance was aware of the
allegations of civilian casualties in Kunar but could not confirm any details.
"We take these allegations very seriously and we are
in the process of determining the circumstances surrounding this
incident," he said.
The reported attack came as President Barack Obama
announced in his State of the Union speech that he will bring home within a
year about half of the 66 000 US troops now in Afghanistan in a step toward
withdrawing all foreign combat forces by the end of 2014.
The UN body monitoring the rights of children said last
week that attacks by US military forces in Afghanistan, including airstrikes,
have reportedly killed hundreds of children over the last four years.
The Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child
said the casualties were "due notably to reported lack of precautionary
measures and indiscriminate use of force."
Isaf, which is composed mainly of American forces,
dismissed that claim, saying that it takes special care to avoid civilian
casualties.
- AP
