KABUL — Coalition forces said Sunday they were investigating allegations that more than 50 civilians were killed in a recent operation in a remote part of northeast Afghanistan.
The International Security Assistance Force denied that any civilians had been wounded in the four-day operation last week in the largely Taliban-controlled district of Ghazi Abad in Kunar province, insisting that only insurgents were killed.
Civilian casualties, most often caused by airstrikes, are a source of deep tension between the U.S.-led international coalition and the government of President Hamid Karzai. The coalition has altered its operating methods to try to reduce accidental deaths, which undermine public support while it tries to fight a raging insurgency.
Mohammad Shah, a 38-year- old resident of Ghazi Abad district, said 70 people had been killed or wounded in the operation, which he said involved Afghan and U.S. troops. He said coalition forces blocked a road to the area after the attack, hampering efforts to get the wounded to hospital care.
“After the attack, the road was closed by American soldiers. Only after an appeal by the district chief was one vehicle allowed through to get the injured,” said Shah, speaking by phone from a hospital in the provincial capital, Asadabad. “Nine of my relatives were injured.”
Because of the roadblock, Shah said, help managed to get through only on the afternoon of the day after the attack. The wounded in his family included three children, ages 2, 6 and 8. He said the 2-year-old had lost a leg below the knee. The child and a badly wounded woman were taken to a hospital to Jalalabad, in neighboring Nangarhar province, and the others were being treated at the hospital in Asadabad.
The coalition said it had video of the incident, which showed 36 insurgents, carrying weapons, being killed. Nevertheless, it was sending an assessment team to the area to investigate the charges of civilian casualties.
Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for ISAF, said helicopters were involved and they had fired bullets, rather than missiles, at the insurgents.
“We gained positive identification before firing,” Johnson said. “We had plenty of indication that this was a group of bad guys on the side of a mountain. This was a very rugged area. We have no concern about collateral damage based on where it was located.”
In the past, some reports of high civilian casualties have been met with initial ISAF denials, but the coalition later has had to admit responsibility.
The Kunar provincial governor, Fazlullah Wahidi, said 51 civilians and 13 insurgents had been killed. He said the dead civilians included 26 children. He said seven were wounded.
“There are foreign Taliban fighters in that area,” Wahidi said. “Coalition forces and Afghan army had faced resistance, so they asked for air support.”
According to a United Nations report last year, 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 injured in the Afghanistan war in the first 10 months of 2010. However, insurgents were responsible for 76 percent of those casualties, the U.N. found.
