NATO airstrike on Afghan fuel tankers kills 90

AN American war jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan yesterday, killing up to 90 people, including insurgents and dozens of civilians who had rushed to the scene to collect fuel, Afghan officials said.

Germany, which called in the airstrike, insisted there were no civilians in the area at the time. Later, however, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledged some civilians may have died and the US-led coalition and the Afghan government announced a joint investigation. The attack in northern Kunduz province is likely to intensify Afghan public anger over such casualties, which prompted NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal last June to order curbs on airstrikes where civilians are at risk.

Violence has soared across much of the country since US President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, shifting the focus of the US-led war on Islamic extremism from Iraq. Fifty-one US troops died in Afghanistan in August, the deadliest month for American forces there since the US-led invasion in late 2001.