AFGHANISTAN: Eight Afghan civilians killed in US-led air strikes
Posted by warvictims on July 17, 2008
By Agence France Presse
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan admitted Wednesday to killing eight civilians during an air strike against militants, as an Afghan official said nine women and a boy had died.
A convoy had come under heavy attack from several houses during a routine patrol on Tuesday in the volatile Bakwa district of the southwestern province of Farah, the coalition said in a statement.
“The coalition convoy returned fire and called for close air support on the enemy positions. A house was hit; eight civilians were killed, two others injured,” it said.
The deputy provincial governor Mohammad Younus Rasouli told AFP that a civilian house had been struck in the raid.
“Information from the area is that 12 civilians have been killed: nine women, two men and a boy,” he said.
He said the international forces had been targeting “a large number” of Taliban from neighbouring Pakistan who had recently entered the area.
The coalition said it never intentionally targeted non-combatants and “deeply regret” any time civilians become casualties in action against insurgents.
The coalition and separate NATO-led International Security Assistance Force are also investigating official Afghan reports that 64 civilians were killed in two strikes in northeastern Afghanistan early this month.
Civilians are regularly caught in the crossfire of an insurgency launched after the hardline Islamic Taliban regime was removed from power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.
Most are killed in rebel attacks but dozens have also been killed in military action this year.
