The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said yesterday it was investigating another case in the east where its troops may have accidentally killed Afghan civilians, a day after local officials said 64 had been killed in raids.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement it was investigating an operation in eastern Nangarhar Province on Sunday night “that resulted in Afghan civilians being accidentally killed and wounded.”
The statement did not give any details about the number of civilians involved. It said three insurgents had been fired on after they were seen placing a roadside bomb.
Three vehicles were later seen driving to a nearby hospital and those inside said the roof of their compound had collapsed during the engagement, the ISAF said.
“This is a deeply regrettable accident,” ISAF spokesman US Army Colonel Patrick Hynes said in the statement.
Late on Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned raids in eastern Kunar Province, which his office said killed more than 50 civilians. He said more measures should be taken to safeguard civilians who are increasingly caught in the crossfire of ramped up fighting.
Kunar Governor Fazlullah Wahidi earlier said 64 civilians were killed by ground and air strikes in the Ghazi Abad District during operations spanning four days.
Videos taken by Reuters TV in a hospital in the provincial capital, Asadabad, showed two children being treated for leg wounds alongside two wounded women.
ISAF, however, cast doubt on the toll in Kunar and said an investigation with Afghan officials would begin yesterday.
Rear Admiral Greg Smith, the chief ISAF spokesman, said the investigation would center on a firefight that began in a rugged and remote area on Thursday night and lasted more than five hours.
He said ISAF had “clear intelligence” that Taliban leaders were planning a meeting that evening and that surveillance footage from weapons systems did not indicate any civilians, or permanent settlements, were in the area.
In other developments, a suicide bomber killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 32 others in a noontime attack on a government compound in northern Kunduz Province yesterday, district officials said.
Mohammad Ayoub Haqyar, a government official in the Emam Saheb District of Kunduz, said the bomber struck as people were lining up to collect identity cards inside the local statistics office.
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