NATO to investigate airstrike in Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN — NATO is investigating the controversial airstrike by U.S. fighter jets called in by a German ground commander on two fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan. Up to 90 people were killed in the early morning airstrike on September 4 in the province of Kunduz after Taliban militants stole the lorries loaded with fuel and villagers gathered to siphon off petrol.

"The Taliban tried to take a fuel tanker that they hijacked on the highway to Angorbagh village," said Baryalai Basharyar Parwani, the police chief of the Ali Abad district in Kunduz. The tankers were intended for use by foreign troops. The terrorists tried to drive them across a river.

"They managed to get one of them to the other side. The second got stuck midstream, however, and the Taliban informed villagers that they could have the diesel fuel the lorry was carrying," said a witness, Mohammad Daud.

"Villagers rushed to the tanker to siphon off the fuel. They quickly gathered around the lorry with ten to 15 Taliban on top of it, when the air strikes hit. Everybody around the fuel tanker died,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters that the strike "was a big mistake." The West should "work with the Afghan people, not bomb them," he added. The action partly diverted attention from a new EU initiative to help Afghans set up a secure, viable and democratic state.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, however, defended the action, saying that "just 6 km away from us, the Taliban took two fuel tankers, posing a serious threat."

German Defence Ministry state secretary Thomas Kossendey said the strike was aimed at preventing a Taliban suicide attack against German troops. "We can only assume that the hijacked tankers were going to be driven to the German army's camp to cause as much damage as possible in a suicide attack."

While Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the NATO airstrike, he said he supported a shift in U.S. military tactics in Afghanistan, brought on by a recent review of strategy in Afghanistan by U.S. Commander Army General Stanley McChrystal.

The Afghan president said McChrystal had showed him proposals emphasizing the protection of Afghan civilians, rather than killing Taliban. Karzai also said that McChrystal apologised for the strike on the hijacked petrol tankers and assured him that he had not ordered it.

source: www.centralasiaonline.com