Afghan men pray near the coffins of civilians who, according to the provincial government, were killed in a Nato air strike, on the outskirts of Jalalabad, yesterday.
JALALABAD: At least five civilians, including three children, were killed overnight in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan after they went hunting for birds with air guns, local officials said yesterday.
In a separate incident, a security guard shot dead a member of the US-led Nato forces at a coalition military base.
After the air strike near Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, Afghan men buried their dead, shouting “Death to America” and “Death to Karzai”.
But a Nato spokesman said Afghan and Coalition forces had responded to an attack with a “precision strike” and that “initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties”.
“Last night around 11 pm, five civilians aged between 12 and 20 carrying air guns wanted to go hunting birds some eight kilometres from the centre of the city of Jalalabad. They were targeted and killed by a foreign forces air strike,” provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal said.
Lt-Colonel Will Griffin said that “while we are still assessing the situation, our initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties”.
“We can confirm that Afghan and Coalition forces responded to an attack and conducted a coordinated precision strike against insurgents in Behsud district, Nangarhar province yesterday,” he said.
Mohammad Atif Shinwari, a spokesman for the Nangarhar education department said that three of the victims were schoolchildren and two were brothers.
In another incident yesterday, Nato said an “alleged contracted security guard” opened fire and killed a member of the US-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan before he himself was shot dead.
The statement did not provide any further details, including the nationality of the perpetrator or that of the victim.
An Afghan official, however, said the shooting occurred at a coalition military base in the southern province of Zabul, which is known as a hotbed of Taliban insurgency.
“According to our reports, the security guard opened fire after some problems and disputes with the Nato forces inside the military base,” provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Jilani Farahi said.
Attacks of this nature, locally known as “insider” or “green on blue” are common in Afghanistan where Afghan troops, some of them reportedly affiliated to insurgent groups, turn on Nato and US allies.
In another incident yesterday, a roadside bomb ripped through a civilian vehicle in the western province of Farah, killing at least three people, including a tribal elder. “Unfortunately, three civilians, including an influential tribal elder, his son and a relative were killed in the explosion,” provincial spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai said.
AFP
