NATO strike kills dozens in Afghanistan
More than 70 - mostly civilians, Afghans said - died when two hijacked fuel tankers were hit.
KABUL, Afghanistan - In an incident that could seriously undermine the central aim of the new U.S. commander, dozens of Afghan civilians were killed and injured yesterday in an air strike by NATO-led forces on two hijacked fuel tankers, according to Afghan authorities.
The predawn strike in a remote part of northern Kunduz province, near the border with Tajikistan, killed more than 70 people, most of them civilians, according to Afghan police, provincial officials, and doctors. Dozens of villagers suffered serious burns in the fireball ignited when the tankers were hit, they said.
Upon assuming command of American and Western forces in Afghanistan in mid-June, U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal declared the safeguarding of civilian lives his top priority, because such casualties erode support for the presence of foreign forces.
NATO is investigating the incident, which comes at a time of deepening political turmoil in Afghanistan. Tensions have been running high as votes are being tallied in the country's disputed presidential election.
Only days earlier, Western military officials had touted figures showing a dramatic drop in civilian casualties inadvertently caused by Western troops, crediting strict new rules of engagement for declines in deaths during July and August.
In the initial hours after yesterday's strike, Western military officials expressed confidence that nearly all those killed had been insurgents. But reports trickling in from the scene painted a grim picture of impoverished villagers engulfed by the explosion as they swarmed the stranded tankers, trying to siphon fuel.
The strike was called in by German troops, who make up the bulk of Western forces deployed in Kunduz.
The drama began Thursday night when militants suspected of belonging to the Taliban commandeered two tanker trucks along a main road. In recent months, NATO has been sending supplies into Afghanistan via Tajikistan, to the north, after Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal areas repeatedly attacked what had been the most widely used supply route, running through the Khyber Pass.
The trucks were tracked via aerial surveillance to a spot near the village of Omar Khel, where they got stuck when the hijackers tried to drive them across a riverbed. Western military officials said they believed there were no civilians in the area, a crucial precondition for air strikes under a tactical directive issued by McChrystal.
But it took more than half an hour to carry out the strike once the decision was made, military officials said.
Some Afghan officials said the Taliban encouraged local people to take advantage of the bonanza on their doorstep.
The initial casualty tally was provided by local officials, including a pro-Western provincial governor, Mohammed Omar, who said many of the 70-plus dead were civilians. That number, which has fluctuated, could change again as the investigation continues.
The handling of the aftermath will be a test for McChrystal. In the past, denials and a slow pace of investigation by U.S. and other Western forces in the face of large-scale civilian casualties have further inflamed anti-coalition sentiment.
Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said the strike was "clearly directed at the insurgents" and said NATO was "deeply concerned for the suffering that this action may have caused to our Afghan friends."
In Kabul, the U.N. mission issued a statement expressing concerns over civilian deaths and injuries. The U.S. Embassy offered condolences to those killed and injured.
Embassy Guards Fired
Eight security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan were fired and two resigned after allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.
The Kabul senior management team of ArmorGroup North America, the private contractor that provides guards
for the State Department, was also "being replaced immediately," an embassy statement said yesterday.
The terminated guards left Afghanistan yesterday. Their names and nationalities were not released.
The scandal surfaced this week when an independent watchdog said the embassy guards were subjected to abuse and hazing by supervisors.
- Associated PressEndText