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Nato has promised a full investigation into an air attack that killed and injured scores of civilians in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the organisation’s secretary-general, pledged to conduct the inquiry, following a raid on Friday that destroyed two hijacked fuel tankers and killed civilians as well as suspected Taliban fighters.
”The people of Afghanistan must be aware that we clearly maintain the commitment of protecting them, and we will investigate thoroughly,” Rasmussen said.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, headed by Peter Galbraith, has also dispatched its own investigation, emphasising that “the families of the victims must receive all the help they need”.
Civilian anger
The attack has raised serious questions over how Nato and US troops engage with their enemy, Aljazeera’s correspondent James Bays said.
Reporting from the bomb site just 7km southwest of the northern city of Kunduz, he said it was impossible to count the dead – some bodies had completely disappeared while others were burnt beyond recognition.
He quoted a hospital source as putting the toll at 56 killed and 13 injured.
“But it is clear that many who died here were not fighters, some were children. The mood of many of the people here is sorrow and great anger,” our correspondent said.
“People here say they are losing confidence in both the Afghan governmnent and the international forces, now the loss of so many lives will only increase that unease.”
Stuck in river
The Nato attack occurred at around 02:00 on Friday, 40 minutes after German and Afghan forces called in air support.
They reported the two tankers had been hijacked by fighters as they travelled from Tajikistan to supply Nato forces in Kabul. The Taliban tried to transport the tankers across a river to villages in Angorbagh.
They managed to take one of the tankers over the river. The second got stuck, so the fighters apparently opened valves to lighten the load and called in villages to help themselves to fuel, according to witnesses.
At this point, the Nato bombs hit the tankers. Nato insists its commanders believed only fighters were present, but now accepts that this was not the case.
Brigadier-General Eric Tremblay, Isaf spokesman, told Aljazeera that the assistant force would “do whatever is needed to be done to investigate and provide as much support as is needed”.
Source: Aljazeera and agencies