JABAR, Afghanistan, 6 March 2007 — A NATO airstrike destroyed a mud-brick home, killing nine people from four generations of an Afghan family during a clash between Western troops and militants, Afghan officials and relatives said yesterday.
Militants fired late Sunday on a NATO base in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul. When fighter aircraft returned fire they hit a civilian home, killing five adults and four children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, said Ghulam Nabi, a relative of the victims.
A US military statement said coalition forces “dropped two 900-kilogram bombs” on the compound after a rocket was fired at the base and armed militants were seen moving into the compound. The NATO base in Kapisa is staffed by US forces and is about 80 km northeast of Kabul, the capital.
An AP reporter at the scene said a large mud home in a compound of five buildings was destroyed, leaving only bits of mud. Among those killed were Ghulam Nabi’s parents, his sister, his nephew, and four of the extended family’s youngest children.
The news of the airstrike came a day after wounded Afghans and witnesses said US Marines fired on civilian cars and pedestrians after a frenzied escape from a suicide bomb and gunfire attack in eastern Afghanistan. The violence sparked angry anti-US demonstrations by hundreds of Afghan men.
Up to 10 Afghans were killed and 34 injured during Sunday’s violence in Nangarhar province.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pleaded repeatedly for Western troops to take care not to harm civilians. Yesterday he condemned the killings and said he had ordered an investigation and government assistance for the victims and their families.
