KABUL — Four U.S. troops died Tuesday in a militant attack in eastern Afghanistan, and NATO forces acknowledged for the first time that civilians were among the dozens killed in an airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks.
Top NATO and U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal appointed a Canadian major general to lead an investigation into Friday’s strike on the fuel tankers in northern Kunduz province. An Afghan official appointed by President Hamid Karzai to examine the attack said his best estimate of the death toll was 82, including at least 45 armed militants.
Also Tuesday, McChrystal banned the sale of alcohol at the military alliance’s Kabul headquarters after becoming frustrated when he had trouble getting in touch with members of his staff after the Kunduz attack, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.
Mathias said four American troops were killed in “a complex attack” in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province, but she did not give details.
McClatchy newspapers reported that four U.S. Marines died in an ambush by insurgents. Seven Afghan soldiers and an interpreter also were killed in the attack and hours-long battle that followed, McClatchy reported.
McClatchy reported that the fighting took place after U.S. and Afghan forces were asked to a meeting with local elders near the village of Gangigal, about 6 miles from the Pakistan border.
The deaths bring to 11 the number of U.S. service members killed in September. Last month, when 51 troops died, was the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 to oust the Taliban regime.
Fighting has intensified since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 more troops to the country this year, and controversy after the attack in Kunduz has reopened the debate over how international forces conduct operations. Taliban militants have used reports of civilian casualties to rally support among villagers.
McChrystal appointed a Canadian major general to lead the probe into the Kunduz attack, a delicate inquiry because the incident involved German forces ordering the airstrikes and U.S. fighter pilots carrying them out. A U.S. Air Force officer and a German officer are on the investigating team.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that her government won’t accept “premature judgments” about the incident. Germany’s military has been criticized for calling in the strike and for initially insisting that it appeared only militants were killed.
Merkel said civilians may have been harmed, but she told parliament the identities of those hit were still unclear.
Also Tuesday, a car bomber attacked an international convoy near the entrance to Kabul’s military airport. The chief of Kabul’s criminal investigation department, Abdul Ghafar Sayadzada, said three Afghan civilians were killed and six wounded.
