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British Air Commodore Mike Wigston (R) and General Boone International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) communication director in Kabul, on Feb. 15, 2012. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)
NATO on Wednesday said it was sorry for killing eight young Afghanis in an airstrike last week and took responsibility for the attack, saying it had “deep regret.”
“While the exact circumstances of this tragic incident remain to be determined,” said the International Security Assistance Force statement, “ISAF is taking appropriate action to ascertain the facts, and prevent similar occurrences in the future.”
The commander of ISAF, Gen. John R. Allen, expressed condolences to the families of those killed in the incident.
“My command’s mission is to protect the civilian people of Afghanistan,” said Gen. Allen. “I take very seriously the loss of every Afghan life. We will continue to do all we can to ensure the safety of the Afghan population.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has continuously called on NATO forces to stop killing civilians in attacks. Karzai strongly condemned last week’s attack, which took place in a village in Kapisa Province, north of Kabul.
An ISAF spokesperson, Gen. Lewis Boone, told Afghanistan’s TOLO News that the young Afghanis, who were aged 6 to 18, appeared to be carrying weapons. However, “in the end, eight young Afghans lost their lives in this very sad event,” he said, according to TOLO.
In a report earlier this month, the United Nations said the number of civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan rose for the fifth year in a row. In 2011 deaths numbered 3,021 an increase of 8 percent over 2010’s death toll of 2,790. The U.N. said the Taliban and other insurgent groups were mainly to blame for the casualties.
