AHN : Airstrike On Remote Village In Afghanistan May Be Largest Civilian Death Toll To Date

Airstrike On Remote Village In Afghanistan May Be Largest Civilian Death Toll To Date

Jessica Pupovac - AHN | August 3, 2007

Kandahar, Afghanistan (AHN) - A NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan Thursday has resulted in what could be the largest civilian death toll since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2001. The raids took place in the in the remote district of Baghran, in Helmand Province, as coalition forces targeted a "sizable meeting of senior Taliban commanders."

Al-Jazeera, however, reports local residents claiming that between 200 and 300 civilians were killed or wounded in the attack. "So far 20 wounded civilians have been brought to the hospital in the capital Lashkar Gah," said local police chief Mohammad Hussein. "We fear many more casualties," he added, saying that the hospitalized range in age from 8 to 50.

Hussein reports that the bombs fell as a gathering crowd awaited the public execution of two criminals by Taliban fighters, a claim which the Taliban has refuted.

Officials are scrambling to verify the assertions, a precarious undertaking in a Taliban-controlled district where the Afghani government has not had a presence for over a year.

Coalition forces, meanwhile, issued a statement maintaining that they "employed precision-guided munitions on their location after ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area." The statement adds that the fate of the targeted Taliban leaders is unknown.

The civilian death toll in Afghanistan, which has already reached a confirmed 350 this year, is having a detrimental effect on public confidence in foreign forces.

Copyright © AHN Media Corp - All rights reserved.