A NATO airstrike killed nine children collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan on March 2, Afghan officials have said.
A March 2 WashingtonPost.com article said the deaths in Konar province “became the latest irritant in the tense relationship between President Hamid Karzai and the international force in the country”.
The top NATO commander, US general David Petraeus, issued an apology for the error, which the occupying forces blamed on “faulty communication”.
The article said: “The strike increased the already high tension between Karzai and NATO commanders, who came under scrutiny late last month because of another case in which Afghan officials alleged that dozens of civilians were killed in a U.S. military operation, also in Konar province.”
NATO said it was investigating the incident.
In an indication of the widespread anger at the killing of civilians, the US puppet regime of Hamid Karzai released a statement in response to Petraeus’s apology that said: “Poor and innocent civilians … have continued on [a] daily basis to suffer in the unjustifiable operations and bombings carried out by NATO.”