Kunduz strike is new challenge for NATO

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Only months into their new jobs, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Western military alliance's new secretary-general, find themselves with the unenviable onus of investigating last week's NATO airstrike against the Taliban in Afghanistan that, some reports said, also took a big toll of civilians.

The attack in northern Kunduz province came only weeks after McChrystal's strict directive on rules of engagement including airstrikes with emphasis on avoiding Afghan civilian casualties, a problem that has dogged international forces in their ever widening war against the Taliban insurgency.

Rasmussen's priority since assuming his new office last month is also to strengthen Afghanistan's internal security through civilian reconstruction and developing the capacity of the Afghan security forces.

In fact, since the McChrystal directive issued a month after he took charge in June and until the latest incident, there had been a sharp drop in the number of civilian casualties despite rising militant violence ahead of last month's elections, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing declassified U.S. military figures.

Based on NATO's own account, what is clear is that the airstrike last Friday blew up two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants in Kunduz, resulting in deaths. Theft and destruction of supply vehicles by militants is one of the many problems NATO forces must contend with in their Afghan campaign.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force on its Web site said it observed insurgent activity but no civilians in the Kunduz area and that the airstrike was called in by a local ISAF commander.

"A large number of insurgents were reported killed or injured and the fuel trucks were destroyed in the attack," the ISAF said. It added reports of civilians killed and injured were being investigated.

While there is yet no confirmation on the exact number of insurgent and civilian deaths amidst vastly varying estimates, most Western media reports have put the total at about 90.

A spokesman for the governor of Kunduz told The New York Times that while there were civilian deaths, most of the estimated 90 killed were militants determined by the pieces of Kalashnikov rifles found in the area.

However, a Pajhwok Afghan News report Saturday quoted district residents as saying more than 150 civilians died and 20 others were wounded in the airstrike. The report said the bombing came as village residents were emptying the stolen tankers, which other reports said had got stuck in a riverbank. The residents claimed all those killed were civilians as the insurgents had left the area prior to the airstrike.

The attack was called in by the German forces under the NATO command in north Afghanistan because the fuel tankers had posed a threat to them.

The New York Times reported German military officials initially said no civilians died. But subsequently a German Defense Ministry spokesman said it was believed more than 50 fighters had died but said nothing about civilian casualties.

There have been questions as to how civilians could have been in the area of the airstrike, which occurred about 2:30 a.m. The area is also believed to be some distance away from nearest villages.

One of the drivers of the fuel trucks had told the BBC two other drivers were beheaded by the militants at the time of the hijacking of the vehicles.

A NATO team arrived in the area to investigate the airstrike, CNN reported.

"Because of the prevalence of reports of civilian casualties, we don't want to be seen as ignoring the situation. We don't want to wait. If something happened, we want to apologize," Capt. Elizabeth Mathias with NATO's ISAF said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose effort to win a second term remains mired in a number of election-related fraud complaints, said he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths, stressing no civilians should be killed or injured in anti-terrorist military operations.

McChrystal, in his immediate response to the airstrike, said in a videotaped message that as commander nothing was more important than the safety and protection of the Afghan people, the Times reported. He said he had ordered an investigation into the reasons for the attack and that he would share the findings with the Afghan people.

The airstrike will also be investigated by the United Nations and the Afghan government. It will be days before the results of all these investigations are known.

But until then, the Kunduz incident will make the job of the ISAF and the U.S. forces that much harder in a country where not much seems to be going right for them lately.