KABUL: An Afghan human rights group said yesterday that at least 78 people, including 20 women, were killed in a joint Afghan-US coalition military operation in western Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai condemned the violence and said most of the dead were civilians.
Karzai, lamenting that his efforts to get the US and NATO to prevent civilian casualties had not been successful, said in a statement that the Afghan government would soon announce “necessary measures” to prevent civilian deaths. He provided no details.
A school principal and police officers said Afghan soldiers tried to hand out food and clothes yesterday to people in Azizabad — the village in Shindand district of Herat province where the US-Afghan operation took place Thursday — but villagers started throwing stones at the soldiers, who then fired on the crowd and wounded up to eight.
US coalition spokeswoman Rumi Nielson-Green said Thursday’s operation was led by Afghan National Army commandos, with support from the coalition.
Originally the coalition said the battle killed 30 militants, but Nielson-Green said five civilians — two women and three children connected to the militants — were among the dead.
