By DPA,
Kunduz (Afghanistan) : Ninety people were killed Friday when a NATO airstrike hit two Taliban-hijacked oil tankers in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz as the militants were distributing fuel to civilians, Kunduz’s governor said.
The militants stopped the two oil trucks, which were bound for German forces stationed in Kunduz, Thursday night on the highway connecting Kunduz with the neighbouring province of Baghlan, Governor Mohammad Omar said.
They took the trucks to Kunduz’s Chardarah district, where the explosion occurred early Friday as civilians gathered to pick up the fuel, he said.
“Around 90 people with around half of them civilians were killed in the explosions,” Omar told DPA.
A German military spokesman said Friday that the airstrikes were ordered by German forces.
German military officials maintained, however, that more than 50 militants and no civilians were killed in the strikes.
A German reconstruction team called for airborne support against a militant attack, German military sources added.
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul confirmed that ISAF air forces identified two hijacked tankers and destroyed them near a river in Kunduz province.
“A large number of insurgents were killed or wounded,” he said without being able to provide figures.
He also said the ISAF was aware of allegations of civilian casualties in the incident, adding that an investigation was being conducted.
“After the ISAF observed the insurgent activity and assessed civilians were not in the area, a local ISAF commander authorized an airstrike,” an ISAF statement said.
Omar said that the explosion claimed the lives of 45 civilians and the remaining dead were Taliban, including a commander, Mullah Abdul Rahman.
At least 13 wounded people, including three children, were brought to Kunduz’s provincial hospital from the blast, said Humayun Khamosh, director of the provincial health department.
Mohammad Akbar from Haji Amanullah village, where the incident took place, said the Taliban had asked the local villagers to take the fuel.
“Both Taliban and ordinary people were taking the fuel to their homes when the military jet dropped bombs on the tankers,” said Akbar, who was accompanying wounded people to the Kunduz city hospital. He said his cousin was killed in the blast.
The Taliban is active in Chardarah district, from which they have launched several attacks in the province.
A security source in the province said around 200 people were killed and wounded in Friday’s explosion.
“The Taliban are active in that village, so it will take some time to get the exact figures of how many of them were civilians and how many of them were the militants,” he said while declining to be named because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Civilian deaths during NATO military operations have become a delicate issue in the country and have sparked demonstrations in the past.
The new NATO commander for Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, ordered the alliance in new guidelines released last week to curb such casualties and make the protection of civilians its main mission.