US-LED air strikes killed more than 100 civilians during operations against insurgents in Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said today, as the US military opened an investigation.
“We confirm that in the military operation the other night more than 100 non-combatants have been killed,” Farah province police chief Abdul Ghafar Watandar told AFP, referring to strikes early Tuesday.
“This information is based on the reports given to us by a delegation composed of ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) members and locals who went to the villages to investigate reports of civilian casualties.”
Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble, he said.
It is one of the highest civilian death tolls from Western military action since foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the extremist Taliban regime and then remained to root out militant insurgents.
Farah province governor Rohul Amin said the Taliban were in control of the area – the volatile Bala Buluk district about 600km from Kabul – making it difficult to verify numbers.
“The area is under Taliban control. We have not been able to get figures on civilian casualties,” he said.
“There are reports of civilian casualties because they were using civilian homes.”
Source/Full Story:: The Australian
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Source/Full Story:: The Australian
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