NATO airstrikes kill Afghan civilians

Airstrikes by NATO helicopters hunting Taliban fighters ripped through three mud homes in southern Afghanistan as villagers slept early on Oct. 18. At least nine civilians were killed, including women and children, residents and the provincial governor said. Shellshocked, angry villagers in Ashogho condemned the attack, which set back NATO's hopes of winning local support for their counterinsurgency campaign. The airstrikes came at about the same time a rocket struck a house in a village to the west, reportedly killing 13 people. "I am not Taliban! We are not Taliban!" Gulab Shah shouted amid the rubble of the ruined houses in Ashogho. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said it appeared that no Taliban fighters were in the village at the time of the 2am air raid. Abdul Karim was sent to a hospital after the bombing killed his wife, son and two daughters. Another son wounded in the attack was finished off by unidentified soldiers who entered the family's ruined mud home to search it, said the distraught farmer. Karim, 60, said he had tried to conceal his 16-year-old son under a blanket. "When they saw my son in wounded condition, they shot him and killed him in front of my eyes." NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that the operation was believed to have caused several civilian casualties. The operation, it said, was meant to detain people involved in roadside bomb attacks in Panjwai district, which borders Zhari. Maj. Daryl Morrell, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, said he could not disclose which, if any, ground troops took part in the operation. The nationality of the planes involved in the air strike was also not disclosed.