A NATO bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed 12 children and two women, as reported by local authorities. Six others, three of them children, were injured. The Alliance and the Afghan army are investigating the incident, which occurred yesterday after a U.S. base suffered an insurgent attack in Helmand province.
"The dead are five girls, seven boys and two girls, and among the six wounded three kids and a woman," said the provincial governor's office said in a statement, picked up by Efe. The air strike directed against suspected insurgents, instead hit two homes full of civilians, an event which happens quite often and contributes to the unpopularity of the international mission in Afghanistan.
A few days ago, the repression of popular protest the killing of four Afghan military operation caused a dozen killed in Takhar province (north). A group from the village of Cala Sera (Nawzad district) has traveled to the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, the bodies of eight children, one of only two years, according to the website of the BBC.
"Look, they are not Taliban," he said, after carrying the bodies to local journalists and the governor's residence. The bombing came after a group of insurgents attacked soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's mission, according to the provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi, according to which Allied soldiers called air support base to suffer an insurgent attack.
A representative of the ISAF was quoted by the BBC says that a coalition soldier was killed in combat in the area. According to the allied mission, the military command of southwest Afghanistan has ordered the submission of a research team behind "known information" about the "alleged killing of civilians" after the bombing.
Nuristan attack last Thursday, the ISAF and carried out another bombing that took the lives of dozens of insurgents in the restive eastern province of Nuristan, but local authorities reported the deaths of 20 civilians and 22 policemen. The insurgents were trying to take Du Ab district when the events occurred and the provincial governor, Badr Jamaludin said that in total some 70 insurgents were killed by armed action of the ISAF.
Civilian deaths are one of the usual friction between the Afghan government and international troops deployed in the country, a total of 150,000 soldiers. Human rights organizations attribute the Taliban most civilian deaths. According to the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 2,777 civilians were killed last year by the violence, which represents an increase of 15% compared to 2009.
In March, Secretary of U.S. Defense, Robert Gates, had to apologize after the death of nine children in an attack helicopter in Kunar province which provoked demonstrations across Afghanistan. Afghan officials, with President Hamid Karzai, the head, have been described as "unacceptable" civilian casualties in bombing.
Karzai's official visit to Turkmenistan, said yesterday in a note that he has ordered his Ministry of Defense to cease operations "uncoordinated" of the ISAF in Afghanistan and take control of nocturnal activities. 
"The dead are five girls, seven boys and two girls, and among the six wounded three kids and a woman," said the provincial governor's office said in a statement, picked up by Efe. The air strike directed against suspected insurgents, instead hit two homes full of civilians, an event which happens quite often and contributes to the unpopularity of the international mission in Afghanistan.
A few days ago, the repression of popular protest the killing of four Afghan military operation caused a dozen killed in Takhar province (north). A group from the village of Cala Sera (Nawzad district) has traveled to the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, the bodies of eight children, one of only two years, according to the website of the BBC.
"Look, they are not Taliban," he said, after carrying the bodies to local journalists and the governor's residence. The bombing came after a group of insurgents attacked soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's mission, according to the provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi, according to which Allied soldiers called air support base to suffer an insurgent attack.
A representative of the ISAF was quoted by the BBC says that a coalition soldier was killed in combat in the area. According to the allied mission, the military command of southwest Afghanistan has ordered the submission of a research team behind "known information" about the "alleged killing of civilians" after the bombing.
Nuristan attack last Thursday, the ISAF and carried out another bombing that took the lives of dozens of insurgents in the restive eastern province of Nuristan, but local authorities reported the deaths of 20 civilians and 22 policemen. The insurgents were trying to take Du Ab district when the events occurred and the provincial governor, Badr Jamaludin said that in total some 70 insurgents were killed by armed action of the ISAF.
Civilian deaths are one of the usual friction between the Afghan government and international troops deployed in the country, a total of 150,000 soldiers. Human rights organizations attribute the Taliban most civilian deaths. According to the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 2,777 civilians were killed last year by the violence, which represents an increase of 15% compared to 2009.
In March, Secretary of U.S. Defense, Robert Gates, had to apologize after the death of nine children in an attack helicopter in Kunar province which provoked demonstrations across Afghanistan. Afghan officials, with President Hamid Karzai, the head, have been described as "unacceptable" civilian casualties in bombing.
Karzai's official visit to Turkmenistan, said yesterday in a note that he has ordered his Ministry of Defense to cease operations "uncoordinated" of the ISAF in Afghanistan and take control of nocturnal activities.
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