NATO Apologizes for Strike on Afghan Civilians
CNN reports:
A NATO commander called the military's killing of nine eastern Afghan boys thought to be insurgents "a terrible mistake" and promised disciplinary action if warranted.
In a video message on Thursday, Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez apologized for the deaths and said an investigation is ongoing into the Tuesday incident in the Darah-Ye Pech district of Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Civilian casualties during warfare in Afghanistan have hurt NATO's International Security Assistance Force, and Rodriguez's video statement reflects the high priority coalition leaders place on avoiding such accidents.
He said insurgents in mountains above a coalition base launched a rocket attack that wounded a U.S. civilian. Troops returned fire, and insurgents later shot another rocket at the troops.
Two attack helicopters flew to the location where "they were told the rockets came from," identified who they thought were insurgents and killed nine people. Later, they found that the slain people were boys cutting wood.
Rodriguez said these incidents are "rare" when considering all of the operations the coalition undertakes. He said a lot of time is spent training soldiers on how to "engage the right targets," and directives are constantly reviewed.
"We have done much better preventing civilian casualties," he said. "But we acknowledge we have to do better."
Rodriguez said the military understands families' grief over such deaths, and he said soldiers "feel worse than they can express" when they "do something terrible like mistakenly killing young boys."
"They have to live with that for the rest of their lives," he said.
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