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Monday, July 21, 2008
NATO admits accidentally killing 4 civilians in Afghanistan (8:50 a.m.)
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO has admitted that its forces accidentally killed at least four civilians in eastern Afghanistan, and a local official said foreign troops clashed with Afghan police in the west, killing nine.
The reported civilian and police deaths could damage popular support for the Afghan government as well as for foreign forces operating here. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with the US and other nations fighting resurgent militants to avoid civilian casualties.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it was investigating whether three other civilians also were killed Saturday night in the Barmal district of Paktika province when its troops fired two mortar rounds that landed nearly half a mile (1 kilometer) short of their target.
The alliance said it was providing medical aid to four civilians who were wounded.
"ISAF deeply regrets this accident, and an investigation as to the exact circumstances of this tragic event is now under way," it said in a Sunday statement.
On the other side of the war-torn country in Farah province, a convoy of foreign forces clashed with Afghan police in Anar Dara district near the Iranian border, killing nine of them, said provincial Deputy Governor Younus Rasuli.
He said the foreign troops had not informed local officials they were coming, and the police thought they were enemy fighters. The two sides fought from about midnight until 4 a.m. Sunday, and the foreign forces used airstrikes, Rasuli said.
The US-led coalition said it was investigating the report. It said its forces, along with Afghan troops, had retaliated in defense against "a non-uniformed hostile force."
"The combined patrol signaled their status as coalition forces, but continued to receive fire," a military statement said.
"Coalition forces then returned small arms fire and engaged the enemy with precision close air support."
Also Sunday, a NATO soldier was killed during fighting in the eastern Khost province, the alliance said in a statement. NATO did not identify the soldier's nationality, but most of the troops in that area are American.
Separately, a mine exploded under a civilian vehicle in Gereshk district in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, killing three children and wounding four other people, said provincial police Chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.
Andiwal accused Taliban militants of planting the mine on a road frequently used by Afghan and foreign troops.
Afghanistan faces intensifying militancy nearly seven years after the US-led invasion of the country ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement from power.
More than 2,500 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year in the country, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.
Most have been militants, but the total includes hundreds of Afghan citizens.(AP) |
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