Afghan Civilians Killed in US Airstrike

Afghan officials say a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in southern Afghanistan has killed several civilians and Taleban militants. Local officials say dozens of people were killed or wounded, with Taleban militants among the dead, when airstrikes targeted militants in a village in southern Helmand province.

Coalition officials say a team has been sent to the area to investigate.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused NATO and U.S.-led forces of carelessly killing 90 civilians in recent operations against the Taleban.

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood, told VOA that Taleban militants are to blame for many civilian casualties. He said they involve civilians in attacks and sometimes make up claims of civilian deaths.

On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, where he met with President Karzai and other officials.

U.N. officials said Mr. Ban's visit - his first to Afghanistan as U.N chief - was designed to ensure coordination between the United Nations and the Afghan government. - VOA News

Dinka's picture

Posted June 30th, 2007 by Dinka

Your comments...

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <p> <br> <a> <em> <ul> <ol> <li> <strong> <blockquote>

More information about formatting options

4 + 8 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.