The US military in Afghanistan has said that dozens of civilians were killed during a special forces’ raid near the northern city of Kunduz last year. The investigation followed claims that civilian deaths resulted from air strikes called in to support Afghan and the US troops who came under fire in the province’s village of Buz-e Kandahari. The strikes targeted two senior Taliban commanders. The two Taliban figures, responsible for violence in Kunduz the previous month, were killed in operation. According to a US military statement, the investigation “determined, regretfully, that 33 civilians were killed and 27 wounded” as troops responded to fire from “Taliban who were using civilian houses as firing positions”. After the raid, Kunduz residents carried over a dozen corpses of the dead, including children and family members of the Taliban fighters, toward a local governor’s office in a show of rage. The Taliban briefly overran the city of Kunduz in September 2015, in a show of strength by the insurgents that also highlighted the troubles facing local Afghan forces, 15 years after the US-led invasion of the country.
“Regardless of the circumstances, I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives,” the statement quoted Gen John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan. “On this occasion, the Taliban chose to hide amongst civilians and then attacked Afghan and US forces.” “We will continue to assist the Afghan security forces in their efforts to defend their country.”
But a Kunduz province official told the Associated Press that the Afghan civilian death toll in the US military inquiry was lower than what local authorities had found. According to the official, more than 50 people, including women and children, were killed in the Afghan and US forces’ attack in Buz-e Kandahari. There have been incidents previously where the civilians had died in collateral damage or misinformed strikes by the US military.
