US air-strike kills over 90 people in Afghanistan

About 90 people were killed in air-strike by US led forces in Afghanistan on Friday. According to reports reaching here from Afghanistan, American jetfighter targeted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing up to 90 people, including insurgents and dozens of civilians who had rushed to the scene to collect fuel.

The attack in Kunduz is latest in series of killing civilians in US air-strikes in Afghanistan, which is creating hatred for the foreign forces specially those of US, German and United Kingdom in Afghanistan.

Friday’s airstrike came hours after the militants seized the tankers near the German base - possibly for a suicide attack against the base, according to German Deputy Defense Minister Thomas Kossendey.

The German forces in statement claimed that German troops reached the scene at 12:30 p.m. and after about 40 minutes received fire from militants and they returned the fire. They returned the fire.

According to German officials the strike took place 40 minutes after the commanders requested it. It was unclear whether civilians began to assemble during that time.

However Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the trucks were headed from Tajikistan to supply NATO forces in Kabul. When the hijackers tried to drive the trucks across the Kunduz River, the vehicles became stuck in the mud and the insurgents opened valves to release fuel and lighten the loads, he said.

Villagers swarmed the trucks to collect the fuel despite warnings that they might be hit with an airstrike, Mujahid said, claiming no Taliban fighters died in the attack.

Abdul Moman Omar Khel, member of the Kunduz provincial council and a native of the village where the airstrike happened, said about 500 people from surrounding communities swarmed the trucks after the Taliban invited them to help themselves to the fuel.

“The Taliban called to the villagers, ‘Come take free fuel,’” he said. “The people are so hungry and poor.”

He said five people were killed from a single family, and a man he knows named Haji Gul Bhuddin lost three sons. Kunduz Governor Mohammad Omar said 90 people were killed, including a local Taliban commander and four Chechen fighters.

A senior Afghan police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said the dead included about 40 civilians.

The director of the Kunduz hospital, Humanyun Khmosh, said a dozen people, including a 10-year-old boy, were treated for severe burns. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, and villagers were burying some of those in a mass grave.

The attack in northern Kunduz province is likely to intensify Afghan public anger over such casualties, which prompted NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal last June to order curbs on airstrikes where civilians are at risk NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged to conduct a thorough investigation.

The United Nations dispatched its own investigation team, expressing concern about reports of civilian casualties.

The UN says nearly two-thirds of 828 civilians allegedly killed by pro-government forces in Afghanistan’s conflict last year died in air strikes.

On the other hand Afghan President Hamid Karzai has strongly criticized the U.S.-led command for allegedly using excessive force in the war against the Taliban.

In statement issue from his office quoting him saying “Targeting civilians is unacceptable for us.” It also said that he was creating a panel to investigate the attack.

- Asian Tribune