Counter-attack: US air strikes kill 30 Afghan civilians

The assault comes after Taliban killed two American soldiers

KUNDUZ: US air strikes early Thursday killed at least 30 Afghan civilians, including women and children, in the volatile northern province of Kunduz, officials said, after a Taliban assault left two American soldiers dead.

The air strike triggered emotionally-charged protests in the provincial capital, with the victims’ relatives parading mutilated bodies of dead children piled into open trucks through the streets of Kunduz city. The carnage underscores worsening insecurity after the Taliban last month overran the city for the second time in a year, as Nato-backed Afghan forces struggle to rein in the insurgents.

Afghan forces backed by US troops were conducting an operation against the Taliban on the outskirts of the city when they came under insurgent fire, prompting calls for air support. “In the bombardment 30 Afghan civilians were martyred and 25 others were wounded,” provincial spokesman Mahmood Danish told AFP. Police spokesman Mahmoodullah Akbari gave the same toll to AFP, adding that the dead included infants aged as young as three months and other children. “They were asleep when their house came under attack,” Akbari said. In a brief statement on Twitter, Nato conceded that US forces were behind the air strike. “Air strikes were conducted in Kunduz to defend friendly forces under fire. All civilian casualty claims will be investigated,” it said.

The strikes occurred after a firefight with insurgents killed two US soldiers and three Afghan special forces during an anti-Taliban operation in Kunduz. The firefight erupted as American soldiers were assisting Afghan troops to clear a Taliban position and disrupt the group’s operations, US forces said. “On behalf of all of US Forces - Afghanistan, today’s loss is heartbreaking and we offer our deepest condolences,” said John Nicholson, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2016.