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The United Nations said Tuesday it had found convincing evidence that 90 Afghan civilians, most of them children, were killed in air strikes by US-led coalition forces in western Afghanistan last week.
 Afghans prepare graves for people killed by a US airstrike on Azizabad village in Herat province. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says it has found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians -- including 60 children -- were killed in US-led air strikes last week. |
The issue of civilian casualties has driven a rift between the Afghan government and its NATO backers with President Hamid Karzai saying earlier this month that air strikes had achieved nothing and had only succeeded in killing ordinary Afghans.
"Investigations by UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men," UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide said in a statement.
The US military has launched an investigation into the incident, after saying it was unaware of any civilians killed in what it said was a single air strike in the Shindand district of western Afghanistan on Friday.
Jets had targeted a known Taliban commander and killed 30 militants, the US-led coalition said.
UNAMA sent its human rights team to the Shindand area to investigate, meeting local officials, elders and villagers.
Afghan and foreign soldiers entered the village of Nawabad in Shindand district around midnight on Aug 21. Operations lasted several hours and air strikes were called in, the villagers told UNAMA.
"The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 7-8 houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. Local residents were able to confirm the number of casualties, including names, age and gender of the victims," the UN statement said.
Japanese aid worker freed
Afghan police freed a kidnapped Japanese aid worker in a raid yesterday, hours after he was seized by a group of gunmen, an official said.
"He is freed and is fine," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
He said one of the kidnappers was wounded in the encounter with police in eastern Nangrahar province, from where the Japanese man was seized while working on a construction site.
The aid worker was seized earlier yesterday from a construction project in the Daraye Noor area of Nangarhar, provincial police spokesman Ghafour Khan said.
Bashary said the identity of the abductors was not immediately clear.
Taliban insurgents, who have been behind a series of abduction of Afghans and foreigners in recent years, said they had no information about the incident.
Earlier, the Japanese government said it was looking into the kidnapping of the man, identified as 31-year-old Kazuya Ito, who worked for a non-governmental organization called Peshawar-kai.
Ito's mother told reporters her son had wanted to work in Afghanistan, even at the risk of his own life.
