At least 13 Afghan civilians have been killed in a NATO air strike near Kabul. Thirteen others were injured, the head of Wardak provincial council said. The NATO-led international Security Assistance Force(Isaf) confirmed it had bombeb an ” insurgent position” but said it had no evidence civilians died.
Civilian deaths have risen as conflict in Afghanistan has worsened. It is often difficult to establish if claims of civilian casualties are accurate. BBC’S Alastair Leithead in Kabul said the areas where civilian deaths are reported are often remote and hostile, and the dead are buried within 24 hours.
He said avoiding the death of civilians in counter-insurgency operations is vital for the success of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called on foreign forces to exercise more care in the battle with the Taleban and their allies. Wardak provincial council head Haji Hazzrat Janan said he had visited the site of the bombing raid in Jalrez district, bordering Kabul province.
Karzai said foreign forces must do better.Local people had told him 11 members of one family were among those killed, he said. Two others had also died and 13 were injured. One man he spoke to said his wife and his daughter-in-law were killed in the attack and that the body of a child had also been recovered from the rubble.
” Th only survivor from the family is a man who is hospitalised and can’t speak”, Haji Janan Said, Rueters news agency reports. An Isaf spokesman confirmed there had been an air strike in the area at around 0900 on Monday morning but said it was targeting a known insurgent position. He said there was evidence that an ambush of Isaf troops was being set up and so a bombing raid was called in, adding that NATO had not received any reports of civilian casualties but troops on the ground were investigating further An Afghan national army local commander said 20 Taleban were killed in the attack from the air and that only three civilians were injured.
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