The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's mission in Afghanistan, admitted Wednesday to have killed "accidentally" yesterday to nine civilians in the east-central Asia, and said that responsibilities be refined by an "action appropriate "against those responsible. In a statement, the military agency said that according to a preliminary investigation the incident occurred on Tuesday after receiving an insurgent attack troops with rockets at the base of Blessing, located in the district of Darah-Ye Pech in the eastern province of Kunar.
"Coalition forces responded with fire to the point of origin. Unfortunately it seems there was an error in the transfer" of the order to the helicopters that carried out the attack, the statement said. Nine children died and another was wounded in the NATO action, according to Efe said yesterday the provincial police, adding that the children, all male and aged between seven and thirteen, were collecting firewood for their families.
In the note, the ISAF said only that the dead are civilians, without specifying which are smaller. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces and ISAF in Afghanistan, expressed his "sorrow for the tragedy" and announced that he will take the necessary measures to prevent further civilian casualties.
"ISAF accepts full responsibility and will continue to investigate this incident thoroughly to understand what happened and try to avoid it happening again in the future. If the research is corroborated, it will undertake an appropriate action, including disciplinary action, the note said.
In recent weeks, international forces have been heavily criticized for causing civilian deaths in several different events. According to the organization's annual report Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), 2,421 Afghan civilians were killed in the war in 2010. Human rights organizations attribute the Taliban most civilian deaths, but the Afghan authorities, with President Hamid Karzai at the helm, have both qualified as "unacceptable" actions of civilian casualties in ISAF. 
"Coalition forces responded with fire to the point of origin. Unfortunately it seems there was an error in the transfer" of the order to the helicopters that carried out the attack, the statement said. Nine children died and another was wounded in the NATO action, according to Efe said yesterday the provincial police, adding that the children, all male and aged between seven and thirteen, were collecting firewood for their families.
In the note, the ISAF said only that the dead are civilians, without specifying which are smaller. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces and ISAF in Afghanistan, expressed his "sorrow for the tragedy" and announced that he will take the necessary measures to prevent further civilian casualties.
"ISAF accepts full responsibility and will continue to investigate this incident thoroughly to understand what happened and try to avoid it happening again in the future. If the research is corroborated, it will undertake an appropriate action, including disciplinary action, the note said.
In recent weeks, international forces have been heavily criticized for causing civilian deaths in several different events. According to the organization's annual report Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), 2,421 Afghan civilians were killed in the war in 2010. Human rights organizations attribute the Taliban most civilian deaths, but the Afghan authorities, with President Hamid Karzai at the helm, have both qualified as "unacceptable" actions of civilian casualties in ISAF.
No comments:
Post a Comment