UN probes reports of civilian deaths in Afghan airstrike

THE United Nations said on Tuesday it was investigating “disturbing reports of serious harm to civilians” in an Afghan airstrike on a religious school that security sources say left dozens of children dead or wounded.

Hundreds of people were attending a graduation ceremony at the madrassa in a Talibancontrolled district in northeastern Afghanistan on Monday when Afghan Air Force helicopters struck, witnesses said.

“Human Rights team on ground establishing facts. All parties reminded of obligations to protect civilians from impact of armed conflict,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a brief statement.

At least 59 people, including Taliban commanders meeting at the compound in the Dashte Archi district in Kunduz province, were killed in the attack, Afghan security sources said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the civilian victims were children, they said. Government officials in both Kabul and Kunduz have given con- flicting figures, with some denying any civilians had been killed or that a madrassa had been hit. Afghan officials have been known to minimise civilian casualties.

“I myself counted 35 bodies,” Abdul Khalil said at the hospital in the provincial capital Kunduz – more than 50 kilometres from the airstrike – where health officials said 57 injured had been taken.

Afghan television showed anguished relatives standing outside the hospital yelling “shame on you”.

So far the Defence Ministry has denied civilians were among the casualties.

“Twenty Taliban, including the commander of their Red Unit in the district, and also a key member of the Quetta Shura were killed,” Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said on Monday.

The Red Unit is the insurgent group’s elite unit and the Quetta Shura is its leadership council.

The same number were wounded, the ministry spokesman added.

Kunduz police chief General Abdul Hamid Hamidi told AFP on Tuesday that “72 of the enemy” had been killed in the airstrike.

Hamidi added that five civilians also died and another 52 were wounded but he denied a madrassa or mosque had been hit. Security forces have donated large quantities of blood to the hospital.

The Taliban on Monday confirmed the attack on the religious school but denied that any militants had been there.