NATO-led forces inAfghanistansaid on Monday, Feb 13, they found the bodies of dead children after a coalitionair strikethat has enraged the Afghan government, and said their deaths may have been linked to an anti-insurgent operation in the area.
The air strike took place last Wednesday near the village of Giawa, in eastern Kapisa province, and followed similar bombings that have stoked tension between thegovernmentandNATOover a civilian death toll that has risen annually for five years.
NATO aircraft and ground forces attacked insurgents on open ground in the Najrab district of Kapisa, saidBrigadier General Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for NATO's 130,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Following the engagement additional casualties were discovered and these casualties were young Afghans of varying ages," Jacobson told reporters.
"At this point in our assessment we can neither confirm nor deny, with reasonable assurance, a direct link to the engagement. Nonetheless, any death of innocents not associated with armed conflict is a tragedy," he said.
Afghan governmentofficials showed gruesome photographs of eight dead boys, and said seven of them had been aged between six and 14, while one had been around 18 years old. They were bombed twice while herding sheep in heavy snow and lighting a fire to keep warm, they said, Reuters reported.
The United Nations said this month the number of civilians killed and wounded in the Afghan war had risen for the fifth year in a row, from 2,790 civilian deaths in 2010 to 3,021 in 2011.
Most deaths were caused by insurgents, the United Nations said, but civilian deaths due to NATO air strikes also rose nine percent to 187. Air strikes were the main reason behind civilian deaths caused by NATO.
