US kills 14 Afghan workers contracted to build road

Nato is investigating claims that its planes killed 14 members of an Afghan civilian road construction crew while hunting Taliban fighters in a mountainous region.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its warplanes conducted airstrikes against Taliban fighters in eastern Nuristan province on Monday night, and that a militant leader was targeted.

“ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab (districts), and in those places we used airstrikes against (Taliban),” ISAF spokesman Brig Gen. Carlos Branco told a news conference.

“The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture.”

A Pentagon spokesman in Washington called the operation a “legitimate airstrike,” believed to have killed the Taliban commander of Nuristan.

However, Afghan officials said bombs hit two tents housing Afghan engineers and labourers contracted by the US military to build a road, killing 14 workers.

They blamed faulty intelligence for the mistake.

“All of our poor workers have been killed,” said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of Amerifa, a Kabul-based road construction company.

“I don’t think the Americans were targeting our people. I’m sure it’s the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information.”

Amerifa received the contract to build 135 miles of road for the US military last year, Jalili said.

The incident is the first major blunder by foreign troops in months.

It follows sharp criticism earlier this year of mass civilian casualties in operations by US and Nato-led troops which have undermined their reputation among Afghan civilians and hurt the government of Western-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said yesterday the military was acting on “credible intelligence from several sources,” and that the strike killed a number of insurgents.

“We believe Abdullah Jan, the western Nuristan Taliban commander, may have been killed in the airstrike. We deem it, at this point, to be a legitimate airstrike,” Morrell said.

Asked about civilian casualties, Morrell said that “the nearest known construction site to where the target area is, is located more than a kilometre away. What’s more, there were no structures, vehicles, or any other construction equipment within the vicinity of the impact area.

“We have no indication at this time that there were anyone other than legitimate targets killed in this operation,” Morell said.

Maj. Charles Anthony, another ISAF spokesman, said two bombs were dropped and there was a “strong indication that we got a Taliban leader during the course of the operation.”

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week in Kabul that the alliance has “worked hard” to change its procedures to avoid civilian deaths, following UN criticism that the foreign troops were behind an alarming number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

This has been the deadliest year yet since the US-led invasion in 2001, with more than 6,100 people killed – including over 800 civilians – in militant attacks and military operations, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.