By NNN-Agencies,
Kabul : NATO launched an airstrike on two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan, sparking a huge blast that killed up to 90 people, including 40 civilians, Afghan officials said Friday.
Officials said that at least 12 people were hospitalized.
Militants seized the two trucks, which were delivering fuel to NATO forces, around midnight near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province, and the alliance launched an airstrike when the Taliban fighters stopped the vehicles at a river crossing, Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin said.
One police official estimated at least 90 people were killed, and that 40 of them were civilians, including some who were receiving fuel being distributed by militants at the crossing.
Kunduz Governor Mohammad Omar of Kunduz also reported 90 dead, but gave no breakdown.
Omar said the dead included the Taliban commander for several Kunduz districts, Abdur Rahman, several other senior Taliban and four Chechen fighters.
“Abudur Rahman is a very dangerous man,” the governor said. “I hope that the death of Abdur Rahman will have a positive effect on Kunduz city.”
Omar said villagers heard jets before the tankers exploded, but that some of them thought the tankers had been hit by rocket-propelled grenades. He said most of the bodies were badly burned.
“It happened 1:45 a.m. (2115 GMT) when Taliban militants hijacked two fuel tankers and wanted to take them to far-flung area in Aliabad district,” police chief of Aliabad Bariali Basharyar said.
However, the vehicles stopped in a river and the militants asked for villagers’ help to take the tankers out when airstrike of international forces occurred, Basharyar said.