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Airstrike kills 21 Afghan civilians

An airstrike by foreign forces killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand overnight, the provincial governor said yesterday.

War planes bombed a village in Sangin district of Helmand Province late on Tuesday, provincial governor Assadullah Wafa said.

"Twenty-one civilians including women and children were killed," he said.

Meanwhile in Washington, a US commander said on Tuesday he was deeply ashamed by the Marine killings of Afghan civilians in March and reported that the US military had made condolence payments to their families.

"Today we met with the families of those victims: 19 dead and 50 injured," said Colonel John Nicholson, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, deployed in eastern Afghanistan. "We made official apologies on the part of the US government" and payments of about US$2,000 for each death.

Speaking to Defense Department reporters by video conference from Afghanistan, Nicholson read the apology he said he made to the families.

"I stand before you today, deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people," the statement said.

"We are filled with grief and sadness at the death of any Afghan, but the death and wounding of innocent Afghans at the hand of Americans is a stain on our honor and on the memory of the many Americans who have died defending Afghanistan and the Afghan people," the statement said.

In a March 4 incident in Nangahar Province, an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines that US officials said also came under fire from gunmen. Injured Afghans said the US soldiers fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.

A US military commander later determined that the Marines used excessive force and referred the case for possible criminal inquiry. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said the Marines violated international humanitarian law by using excessive force when they fired along a 13km stretch of road.

Accounts of the number of dead and wounded varied, with some as low as 10 or 12.

Nicholson said officials went to great lengths to trace down all who might have been injured along the crowded highway as well as those not from the immediate area but there on that day at a crowded bazaar. The military asked the Afghan government to help determine how many people had legitimate claims.

"We defaulted to the higher number ... but feel confident that each of these people were in fact involved in the incident," he said.

Military killings of civilians have been eroding Afghan support for international forces and Afghan officials have repeatedly pleaded with the US and NATO to take care during operations that might harm civilians.

A number of recent deaths have deepened ill will among Afghans, whose support for international forces and the shaky US-backed government is waning.

Hundreds of angry protesters chanting "Death to Bush" demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan a week ago after six people -- including a woman and a teenage girl -- were reportedly killed when US-led coalition and Afghan forces raided a suspected car bomb cell.

The protest was held on the same highway where a Marine convoy killed the civilians Nicholson talked about on Tuesday.

Nicholson declined to say anything more about the incident on Tuesday, saying only that it was under investigation.
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