NATO said yesterday its investigation into a rocket strike that the Afghan president said killed 52 civilians found no evidence that its forces were involved.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday that a rocket attack on a residential compound in Helmand Province was carried out by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The attack by a helicopter gunship last Friday killed 52 people in Regey village, in Helmand’s volatile Sangin district, he said.
NATO has consistently denied its forces were responsible for the incident.
“We do not know where the information they say they have is coming from,” ISAF public affairs officer Todd Breasseale said.
A joint ISAF-Afghan government investigation had not revealed ISAF involvement in the deaths of civilians in Regey, he said.
He said the Afghan National Security Council appeared to have conducted a parallel investigation at the president’s behest.
The NSC investigation found “a rocket launched by NATO/ISAF troops” hit a house in Sangin on Friday “leaving 52 civilians dead, including women and children,” Karzai said.
Breasseale said the ISAF-Afghan investigation looked into an operation conducted by US Marines and the Afghan army “10 to 12 kilometres” from Regey.
“We are looking into who was responsible for [the rocket attack], that is part of our investigation,” he said.
Missing sailors
Meanwhile, NATO said yesterday the remains of a US sailor had been recovered in Afghanistan and confirmed that a second was held captive, four days after the pair vanished in an area largely controlled by the Taliban.
The remains of the sailor were recovered on Sunday, ISAF said in a statement.
The search for the second missing sailor was continuing in Logar Province, south of Kabul, it said.
“Afghan and coalition forces recovered the remains of a missing ISAF service member Sunday in eastern Afghanistan,” it said. “Afghan and coalition forces launched an extensive search-and-recovery operation when two service members failed to report to their destination Friday.”
“ISAF holds the captors accountable for the safety and proper treatment of our missing service member,” it said.
It marked the first time ISAF conceded the Americans had been held captive.
The two US Navy sailors went missing late on Friday last week after leaving a military compound in Kabul in an armored but unmarked vehicle, ISAF officials said.
The Taliban, who are active in Logar, said on Sunday their fighters had ambushed the pair, killing one and taking the other captive.
ISAF launched a massive road and air search in the area, checking compounds of what it said were known insurgents.
Kidnappings of foreign soldiers are rare in Afghanistan, where a nine-year insurgency has been escalating in recent months, particularly in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
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