Afghanistan launches probe into children deaths
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, February 10, 2012
The Afghan government said Friday it launched an investigation to probe a NATO air strike in eastern Kapisa province that allegedly left eight children dead, according to a statement posted on the Presidential Palace's website.
"President Karzai has assigned a delegation led by advisor Haji Mohammad Zaher Safi to launch an all-out probe into the NATO bombing in the province of Kapisa," the statement said.
"Based on information by the (Kapisa) provincial governor, as a result of an air strike conducted on Feb. 8 in Geyawa village in Nijrab district of Kapisa province, eight children were killed," it said.
"ISAF has been looking into this incident right now and a joint assessment team has been sent to Nijrab district to investigate it," a spokesman of the International Security Assistance Force told Xinhua on Friday. He said more details will be released to media after the investigation.
President Hamid Karzai on Thursday strongly condemned the Wednesday aerial bombing by foreign troops that killed a number of children in Nijrab district of Kapisa province, the statement said.
The restive Nijrab and neighboring Alasay district have been regarded as Taliban stronghold in the province with Mahmud-e-Raqi as its capital, 65 km north of Kabul.
However, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Afghan and Coalition forces killed eight insurgents and detained two suspected individuals in eastern Afghanistan during operations throughout the past 24 hours ended on Thursday evening.
"A Coalition Force air strike killed six insurgents in response to rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire in Nijrab District, Kapisa Province," ISAF Regional Command-East said in the statement issued Friday.
According to the ISAF statement, the joint forces also killed two insurgents after receiving mortar fire in Khost District of eastern Khost Province in the same period of time.
The death of Afghan civilians by NATO-led troops during operations against Taliban have long been a contentious issue between the Afghan government and the U.S. and NATO forces in the insurgency-hit country.
Afghan officials had in the past stressed such deaths would further undermine the war against Taliban and terrorist groups and inflame an anti-foreign sentiment in the country.
The Afghan president, under strain from the public, has long been criticizing the NATO and U.S. forces over their erroneous killing of civilians since the war against terror begun in late 2001.
The Wednesday incident was the second since the beginning of this year when a number of children have been killed in Afghanistan.
A total of six children were killed when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by insurgents went off in Tirin Kot city, the provincial capital of southern Uruzgan province on Jan. 6.
The civilian casualties has increased for a fifth successive year as a total of 3,021 Afghan civilians were killed in 2011, an 8 percent rise over the same period of 2010, according to a United Nations annual report released in Kabul on Feb. 4.
The U.N. report attributed 77 percent of the civilian deaths last year to the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups opposing the Afghan government. Another 14 percent of the deaths were attributed to Afghan and NATO-led forces and 9 percent were unattributed.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)