Nato chief orders investigation into airstrike deaths of Afghan villagers

London Times

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday pledged a full inquiry into an airstrike that killed as many as 90 people in Afghanistan, when the alliance’s war planes destroyed two of their own petrol tankers hijacked by the Taleban.

The strike in the northern province of Kunduz triggered fears of a large civilian death count, something Nato has been struggling to prevent. It is concerned that it would further undermine its already struggling counter-insurgency strategy.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, announced that he was creating his own panel to look into the attack, saying: “Targeting civilians is unacceptable for us.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, also called for an urgent investigation. “It’s important that we are very open and clear about what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

A German army spokesman said that at least 56 of the dead were Taleban fighters. The governor of Kunduz province, on the border with Tajikistan, said that about 90 people died, and a Nato spokesman admitted that a large number of wounded civilians were arriving at nearby hospitals.

“Based on the information we are receiving from Kunduz, it would appear that many civilian casualities are being evacuated and treated in the local hospitals. There is perhaps a direct link with the incident that has occurred around the two fuel trucks,” said Brigadier General Eric Tremblay.

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