KABUL, Afghanistan, March 6 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into U.S. military operations in Afghanistan this week that resulted in many civilian deaths.
The non-government organization urged the United States to heed a request by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for an investigation into the incidents.
The Sunday incident involved a suicide bomb attack on a U.S. military convoy in Nangarhar province. There were no injuries from the bomb but witnesses said the U.S. forces fleeing the blast opened fire on civilian vehicles and pedestrians, killing as many as 16 civilians and injuring about 25 others.
The second incident, on Monday, involved a U.S. aerial bombing in response to an insurgent rocket attack in Kapisa province. The U.S. bombing killed at least nine civilians, including five women and three children.
"Suicide bombers in Afghanistan regularly pose as civilians but that doesn't give coalition forces carte blanche to respond with indiscriminate fire," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The fact that the insurgents violate the laws of war doesn't absolve the U.S. and its allies of the need to observe them."
