AFGHANISTAN: Nato warplanes killed at least 50 civilians, mostly women and children, in bombing in southern Afghanistan during a major Islamic holiday, local leaders said yesterday.
The incident happened on Tuesday, the middle of the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month, in Panjwai, an area where the alliance said it had killed hundreds of insurgents in a two-week offensive last month.
Nato says it killed 48 insurgents during heavy fighting in the area in Kandahar province, but had also received credible reports several civilians were killed in the operation. The defence ministry has sent a team to investigate and President Hamid Karzai yesterday appointed a special team of local elders to look at the case.
"It was late at night - that might be the reason they didn't know where to bomb," said provincial assembly member Agha Lalai. Visiting the wounded in hospital, tribal elder Naik Mohammad said 60 civilians had died. Villagers also said 60 died, dozens were wounded and 25 houses razed in four to five hours of bombing.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, yesterday urged a speedy and thorough investigation. "[UNAMA] is very concerned by reports that a great number of civilians may have died during the conduct of military operations," it said in a statement in Kabul.
"The safety and welfare of civilians must always come first, and any civilian casualties are unacceptable, without exception." This is Afghanistan's bloodiest year since the Taliban's Islamist government was ousted in a US-led invasion in 2001.
More than 3,000 people have been killed, mainly militants, but many civilians, too, and more than 150 foreign soldiers. The Taliban and other insurgents have regrouped, helped by a booming, illegal opium trade and growing frustration at the slow pace of reconstruction and the lack of jobs or a real economy.
In an Eid message, Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed to step up attacks and a senior guerrilla told the BBC the group will increasingly use suicide bombers - up to six at a time.
"So far you see just individual suicide attacks, but in the future you might see as many as six people committing the attacks simultaneously," Hajji Mullah Wahid Ullah, described as a Taliban adviser, told the BBC.
Although still not as common as in Iraq, suicide bombings have increased dramatically this year, killing more than 200 people so far compared with 50-60 throughout 2005. Germany stepped up security at its embassy in Kabul and missions across the Middle East after a scandal over pictures apparently showing German soldiers playing with a human skull.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry said the action "goes against Islamic values and Afghan traditions" and demanded tough punishment for those responsible. The pictures, which have drawn comparisons with photos of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail, were published this week in the German newspaper.
"This act can be used as a catalyst for the Taliban to promote their profile and to increase the number of people who join them," said Nadir Nadiry, a human rights commission member.