SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, 5 May 2007 — At least 13 civilians were killed in a bombing raid by US-led forces battling the Taleban, an Afghan official said yesterday, bringing to 70 the number of such deaths reported this week.
The rising toll of civilian casualties will put further pressure on President Hamid Karzai, who warned this week of serious consequences for all if the bloodshed did not stop.
The civilians were killed in bombing on Tuesday night in the Maroof district of southern Kandahar province, near the border with Pakistan, said Janan Gulzai a provincial assembly member.
“I saw all the victims are civilians,” Gulzai who was a member of a government team investigating the incident, told Reuters.
“We cannot accept the killing of Afghan civilians by anyone.” The civilians were traveling in three cars along the same stretch of road as coalition troops near the town of Spin Boldak when the troops came under Taleban fire, said Ghulam Farooq, a resident of the area.
The 13 civilians were killed when coalition warplanes were summoned to bomb the area while the Taleban escaped, he said.
A spokesman for the US military said he had no information about the report and would check.
Meanwhile, the Taleban said yesterday it had not been contacted about its demands for the release of a Frenchman and three Afghans it has held for a month, reiterating its position on foreign hostages was “clear.” The deadline for its demands — the withdrawal of French troops or release of Taleban prisoners — is due to expire today. No precise time has been given.
“The deadline is drawing closer every moment,” Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. “The French government and the Afghan government not only has not accepted our demands, but they even have not tried to contact us. The situation is unclear and blurry.”
In Faizabad, floods triggered by heavy rain killed 23 Afghans and a NATO soldier, and destroyed scores of houses in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Badakhshan, officials said.
Authorities were searching for some missing people after the flooding, which hit on Thursday night in an area of the impoverished and mountainous province near the border with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, the provincial governor said.
“The people are in a very bad state,” Munshi Abdul Majid said.
