McChrystal: Afghan civilians wounded at air strike site

Nato’s top commander in Afghanistan confirmed civilians were wounded by a devastating air strike targeting militants in northern Afghanistan.

General Stanley McChrystal said the incident was a major test of his policy to curb airpower to reduce civilian casualties and win over Afghans to the war against the Taliban.

Gen McChrystal waded through a knee-deep river yesterday to inspect the charred remains of two fuel tankers destroyed in the attack, which Afghan officials say killed about 70 people.

It was unclear how many were Taliban and how many were villagers who rushed to the scene to siphon fuel from the stolen trucks. The villagers’ yellow fuel cans still littered the river bank.

Gen McChrystal visited the site about 100 miles north of Kabul as European leaders already nervous about the escalating war demanded answers.

Some called Friday’s air strike – requested by the Germans and carried out by US jets – “a tragedy” and “a big mistake” that must be investigated.

The bombing also sent shockwaves through Germany ahead of national elections on September 27. Opposition politicians called for a thorough investigation, even as the defence minister insisted all the dead were militants.

Gen McChrystal then paid a sombre visit to the Kunduz hospital, where he stooped to talk with a 10-year-old boy whose arms and legs were swathed in gauze.

“While I was going to get the fuel, on the way I heard a big bang, and after that I don’t know what happened,” said the boy, Mohammad Shafi.

Gen McChrystal whispered “tashakor”, thank you in the Afghan language of Dari, to the boy and left the room.

“Anytime anybody is hurt it is something that gives pause to everybody, particularly when they’re young people, still children. And so you take it very seriously,” he said.

“So I take this entire effort as something that is a responsibility of our command, and a responsibility of mine, to try to protect Afghans.”

Civilian casualties have dogged the US and Nato mission in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

When Gen McChrystal took command in June, he immediately issued orders aimed at reducing such deaths, and asked his troops to concentrate on protecting and understanding Afghan villagers.

The new approach appeared to help, but Friday’s bombing threatened a major setback to Gen McChrystal’s goals.

“From what I have seen today and going to the hospital, it’s clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at the site,” he told reporters. He did not say if any civilians were killed.

“I think it’s a serious event that is going to be a test of whether we are willing to be transparent and whether we are willing to show that we are here to protect the Afghan people.

“And I think that it’s very important to me that we follow through on that.”

Other Nato officials have conceded that civilians probably died.

“There is no reliable information on numbers, but there’s a good sort of a gut sense that there had to have been civilians that made their way just based on the anecdotal conversations we’ve been hearing,” said US Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, Gen McChrystal’s top spokesman.

During his visit to the site, Gen McChrystal asked Smith how many people could be seen on the riverbank through the video feed from US F-15E fighter jets that carried out the attack.

“We could see from the downlink about 120 people?” Gen McChrystal asked.

“It was ebbing and flowing,” Rear Admiral Smith said.

Afghan officials at first said as many as 90 people died in the bombing, though the Kunduz governor lowered his estimated toll yesterday to about 70.

Rear Admiral Smith said a preliminary review of surveillance video showed that 56 people died in the blast. But no US or Nato official would say how many might have been civilians.

Nato said a B-1 bomber first spotted the two stolen trucks and the dozens of people around them. The bomber was low on fuel and had to return to base, but the two F-15Es arrived 20 minutes later.

The jets transmitted video back to officials at the German base. About 30 minutes after the F-15s appeared, the bombs were dropped, at about 2am.