Source:
NYTNATO Apologizes for Killing Unarmed Afghans in Car
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO apologized Wednesday for shooting to death four unarmed Afghan civilians this week in Khost Province and acknowledged that it had wrongly described two of the victims as “known insurgents.”
The shootings on Monday evening were the latest occasion in which Afghan civilians had been killed by military convoys at NATO or American checkpoints, or in bungled Special Operations raids.
The spate of civilian deaths has infuriated Afghan leaders and undermined the West’s war plan just as it is about to enter its most crucial phase — a planned summer offensive in Kandahar.
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“People hate the international forces,” said Bakhtialy, a tribal elder in Kandahar who, like many Afghans, goes by one name.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22afghan.html
Earlier report:
Dispute Flares After NATO Convoy Kills 4 in Afghanistan
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and SHARIFULLAH SAHAK
KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO military convoy in eastern Afghanistan shot to death four unarmed civilians in a vehicle early Monday evening, including a police officer and a 12-year-old student, Afghan officials said Tuesday.
The killings in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, led to a dispute almost immediately between local Afghan leaders and NATO officials. Deaths of civilians from shootings by NATO forces near convoys and at checkpoints have emerged as a particular flash point with the Afghan public and government.
“The civilians’ vehicle was driving on the road when the coalition forces opened fire on them,” said the governor of Gurbuz District, Mohammad Akbar Zadran. “There was a 12-year-old schoolboy among the dead, and a police officer named Maiwand who was also killed.”
Without offering proof, NATO described the dead as two insurgents and their “associates.” In a statement on Tuesday, NATO said the vehicle ignored warning shots and accelerated toward the military convoy. But the statement did not challenge the Afghan account that no weapons were found in the vehicle. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/world/asia/21khost.html