U.S. airstrike kills Afghanistan children

Attack aimed at Taliban leader may have killed as many as 10 children

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. military airstrike in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border killed as many as 18 people, including at least one senior Taliban commander but also women and children, raising the thorny issue of civilian casualties for the third time in roughly a week.

The attack occurred Saturday during a joint mission of Afghan and U.S. special operations forces targeting a high-profile Taliban commander in Kunar province, Afghan officials said. After several hours of fierce fighting with insurgents in the area, the U.S. forces called in an airstrike to level the home of the commander, Ali Khan, officials said.

In addition to killing Khan and at least four other Taliban fighters, as many as 10 children were killed in the strike and at least five women were wounded, said Abdul Zahir Safi, the governor of Shigal district, where the attack occurred. Afghan officials believed they were the relatives and children of the Taliban commander.

Civilian casualties have long been a sticking point between President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies. Harsh criticism by Karzai led to stronger rules on airstrike use by U.S. forces last year, effectively halting air attacks on population centres and homes.

Civilian casualties at the hands of foreign forces have dropped dramatically since then, though such strikes bring intense anger among the Afghan population when they happen.

On the Afghan side, Karzai basically prohibited his own armed forces from requesting supporting NATO airstrikes after an incident in the same district of Kunar, Shigal, in February 2012 killed 10 civilians.

On Sunday, Karzai’s office issued a statement criticizing the deaths in the Kunar airstrikes, and called for an investigation into civilians deaths there.

The civilian death toll on Saturday added to two incidents in Ghazni province in the past eight days, when four police officers were killed during a NATO airstrike and two children died in a helicopter attack.

A spokesperson for the coalition forces said all of the allegations of civilian casualties remain under investigation. And military officials reiterated that all three recent strikes were called in by international forces rather than Afghan troops.

U.S. military commanders have insisted that airstrikes can be crucial to protecting soldiers’ lives, especially as Afghan forces increasingly take the lead on security operations this year.

Places like Kunar and nearby Nuristan province, which have particularly rugged terrain, make airstrikes a weapon of choice because of the difficulty in moving ground troops.

The area, a crucial route for insurgents travelling between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a Taliban stronghold, has been the scene of extensive violence between the Taliban and Afghan and coalition forces.

In February, Afghan and NATO forces killed another commander, Shah Pour, in the attack that prompted Karzai’s initial outcry over airstrikes and civilian casualties. Another key commander in the area, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a joint operation conducted in August 2012.