NATO airstrike killed eight children - Karzai
Afghaniastan: A NATO airstrike killed eight children in Afghanistan's
Kapisa province, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday.
The president “strongly condemned the aerial bombing by foreign
troops that killed a number of children in Nejrab district” northeast of
Kabul on Wednesday, said a statement from his office.
“Based on information by (the) provincial governor, as a result of an
air strike conducted on February 8 in Geyawa village in Nejrab district
of Kapisa province, eight children were killed,” the statement said.
Karzai had assigned a delegation “to launch an all-out probe into the
NATO bombing”, it added.
A NATO spokesman said he could “confirm there has been a situation. A
joint assessment team went there to identify the situation”.
The Afghan president, who has a strained relationship with his
Western allies, has regularly condemned NATO for civilian deaths in the
decade-long war against Taliban insurgents fighting to overthrow him. A
record number civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2011 -- the fifth
straight year the death toll has risen, the United Nations reported last
week.
A total of 3,021 civilians died -- mostly at the hands of insurgents
-- up eight percent from 2,790 in 2010, the UN mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA) said in its annual report. AFP
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