Kunduz airstrike
Encyclopedia
The Kunduz airstrike took place on Friday 4 September 2009 at roughly 2:30 am local time, 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of Kunduz City
, Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan
, near the hamlets of Omar Kheil by the border of the Chahar Dara
and Ali Abad
districts. Responding to a call by German forces
, an American F-15E fighter jet struck two fuel tankers captured by Taliban insurgents; however, a large number of civilian
s were killed in the attack.
Because of the high civilian death toll, the airstrike had political repercussions, especially in Germany. In June 2010 Germany announced it would pay $5,000 to each of the families of over 100 civilian victims, as an ex gratia
payment without admitting liability. The former Afghan Commerce Minister Amin Farhang described the $5,000—equivalent to about 20,000 Afghanis
—as a "laughable" sum. Earlier, Germany had reclassified the Afghanistan deployment as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law.
into Afghanistan for NATO along the Northern Distribution Network. According to The Daily Telegraph
, it was roughly 22:00 local time when they were approached by a group of Taliban and Chechens (apparently foreign volunteers), who proceeded to kill the tanker drivers by beheading them and seize their vehicles. According to the Taliban version of events, they later opened the tankers up to looters to siphon fuel after one vehicle became immobilized in mud at a river crossing. It was at this point that the tankers were located by an American B-1B
, and two F-15E Strike Eagle
s were dispatched there.
With video of the scene being transmitted from the F-15Es, German Oberst (Colonel) Georg Klein was told that all the people around the stationary tankers were insurgents, a piece of information that was relayed to him by an intelligence officer who was on the phone with a sole Afghan informant. Based largely on the sole informant's assessment, the German commander ordered that 500-pound GBU-38
bombs be dropped onto each of the two trucks at 2:30 am.
The bombs struck two minutes later, exploding the oil tankers in a fireball that incinerated many of those around. The video in the German tactical operations center showed a huge mushroom cloud
blanketing the area and revealed only a few fleeing survivors out of the 100 or so people that had previously been present on the screen.
It is unknown exactly how many people were killed in the resulting explosions but estimates of the death toll have ranged from 56 to 179. The governor of Kunduz, Mohammad Omar, stated that 90 people had been killed, amongst them a local Taliban commander and four Chechen
fighters. An anonymous senior Afghan National Police
officer said that around 40 civilians were killed in the blasts. A NATO fact-finding team estimated a day after the incident that about 125 people were killed in the U.S. airstrike, and that at least 24 – but perhaps many more – of those killed had been Afghan civilians. A later German investigation found that up to 142 people died in the attack, including over 100 Afghan civilian victims.
The strike occurred as villagers gathered to collect fuel from the tankers. The governor of Kunduz province has said that Taliban leaders are among the dead and was supportive of the ISAF attack. NATO has said its commanders had believed that only insurgents were in the vicinity. German forces had responded to the hijack at 12:30 pm and exchanged fire with militants within 40 minutes of arriving, but were unable to reclaim the vehicles.
German forces stated that the strike took place after an unmanned surveillance aircraft
had determined that there were no civilians in the area. German officials said the strike took place 40 minutes after the commanders requested it. It is unclear whether civilians began to assemble during that time, but one eyewitness claims that up to 500 people from surrounding villages swarmed the tankers for free fuel.
, Italian
, and Swedish
foreign minister
s all generally criticized the airstrike, while German
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung
emphasized the danger posed by the stolen tankers. General Stanley McChrystal
made a statement on Afghan television and visited the site of the bombing the following day; a NATO team charged with investigating the airstrike also arrived at the scene.
In an interview with Le Figaro
released on September 7, 2009, Afghan President Hamid Karzai
said:
U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was quoted by CNN
as saying, "Of course, you don't know all the facts until an investigation's complete. And I clearly don't know all the facts now, and would not want to affect a potential investigation by making some conclusion that might be inappropriate. But from what I have seen today in going to the hospital, it's clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at that site." Afghan President Hamid Karzai
has long been critical of the high civilian death toll
caused by the tactics of the NATO International Security Assistance Force
. News investigations called it the bloodiest German military action since World War II, although the actual attack was carried out by the US Air Force.
While initially downplayed by German's government which was busy in an election campaign at the time, the airstrike then dominated political debates in Germany for several months and in November 2009 led to the resignation of German labor minister Franz Josef Jung
, who was defense minister during the attack. In early 2010, further material came to light, especially about the political handling in the German government, which brought further pressure on a number of people, including Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
, the new defense minister. The major German newsweekly Der Spiegel
, in an exhaustive research article published in February 2010, called the incident a war crime
due to the fact that the attack on the tankers had broken a number of rules of conduct, and had led to a later cover-up.
German public prosecuting authorities investigated the case, but announced on 20 April 2010 that the investigation was concluded and that no criminal proceedings would be initiated against Colonel Klein and Hauptfeldwebel (Master Sergeant) Wilhelm. They stressed that, according to their findings, neither the German penal code nor international criminal code had been violated; it was found that Colonel Klein and the soldiers under his command acted reasonably according to the information available to them at the time. It was explicitly stressed that later findings about the true situation (namely the presence of civilians) could not make the action illegal in retrospective.
) in which civilian victims are mentioned, including children.
Several German officials initially justified the airstrike: including on October 29, the Germany Army's Chief of Staff, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan
and on November 6 the newly appointed Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
(CSU).
On 26 November, Wolfgang Schneiderhan
, and deputy Defence Minister (Verteidigungs-Staatssekretär) Peter Wichert had both resigned over allegations of a cover-up relating to the incident. A local commander was recalled to Germany while the public prosecution authorities investigated if international law had been breached; the commander only had one source of intelligence, who could not see the lorries, which was a violation of the rules of engagement designed to minimise civilian casualties in air attack missions.
On November 27, Franz Josef Jung submitted his resignation as Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesarbeitsminister), a position he had accepted after the September federal election, after repeatedly denying civilian deaths in the attack. The political parties SPD
, Linke
and Grüne
announced the forming of an investigation committee.
On December 3, in the German parliament, Guttenberg calls the airstrike unjustified. On December 9, the German weekly "Der Stern
" published that Guttenberg had received a report of the International Red Cross already on November 6 in which civilian casualties were mentioned.
On December 10, it was revealed that the German Special Forces (KSK
) were indirectly involved in the airstrike.
On December 18, Schneiderhahn was replaced by Volker Wieker
.
In February 2010 German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
announced the Afghanistan deployment was being reclassified as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", which would allow German soldiers based in Afghanistan to act without the risk of being prosecuted under German law.
did not investigate the results of the air strike, and for months acted as if there had been no civilian casualties. A German lawyer of Afghan descent, Karim Popal, identified 179 civilian victims, threatening legal action. A Bundeswehr investigation then identified 102 families of civilian victims. In June 2010 Germany announced it will pay $5,000 to each of almost all of the identified families, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability.
The earlier official Afghan report about the incident lists 119 dead. This includes 49 armed militants, 20 unarmed militants, 30 civilians and 20 unidentified.
The first independent estimate of the death toll, on September 7, 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a prominent Afghan human rights group, said that up to 70 civilian
s had been killed in the U.S. airstrike. The non-governmental group reached the figure based on interviews with local residents that indicated that 60 to 70 non-combatants had died in the airstrike, as well as more than a dozen armed men.
The Taliban said they had also set up a commission to investigate the incident, and released a list of 79 civilians – showing name, father's name, and age – that they claimed had been killed in the airstrike. The list included 24 children under the age of 18.
Kunduz
Kunduz also known as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province. It is linked by highways with Mazari Sharif to the west, Kabul to the south and Tajikistan's border to the north...
, Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, near the hamlets of Omar Kheil by the border of the Chahar Dara
Chahar dara District
Chahar Dara District is one of the seven districts in Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan...
and Ali Abad
Ali abad District
The Ali abad District is situated in the southern part of Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. It borders with Baghlan Province to the South, Chahar dara District to the West, Kunduz and Khan Abad districts to the North and Takhar Province to the East...
districts. Responding to a call by German forces
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
, an American F-15E fighter jet struck two fuel tankers captured by Taliban insurgents; however, a large number of civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
s were killed in the attack.
Because of the high civilian death toll, the airstrike had political repercussions, especially in Germany. In June 2010 Germany announced it would pay $5,000 to each of the families of over 100 civilian victims, as an ex gratia
Ex gratia
Ex gratia is Latin for "by favour", and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ex gratia, it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace...
payment without admitting liability. The former Afghan Commerce Minister Amin Farhang described the $5,000—equivalent to about 20,000 Afghanis
Afghan afghani
The Afghani is the currency of Afghanistan. It is notionally subdivided into 100 pul , although there are no pul coins in circulation.-Original Afghani :...
—as a "laughable" sum. Earlier, Germany had reclassified the Afghanistan deployment as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law.
Stolen tankers
Kunduz province, the site of the airstrike, was largely peaceful until Taliban militants started infiltrating the area in 2009. The events leading up to the American airstrike early Friday morning began the previous evening, as two fuel tankers were transporting fuel from TajikistanTajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
into Afghanistan for NATO along the Northern Distribution Network. According to The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, it was roughly 22:00 local time when they were approached by a group of Taliban and Chechens (apparently foreign volunteers), who proceeded to kill the tanker drivers by beheading them and seize their vehicles. According to the Taliban version of events, they later opened the tankers up to looters to siphon fuel after one vehicle became immobilized in mud at a river crossing. It was at this point that the tankers were located by an American B-1B
B-1 Lancer
The Rockwell B-1 LancerThe name "Lancer" is only applied to the B-1B version, after the program was revived. is a four-engine variable-sweep wing strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force...
, and two F-15E Strike Eagle
F-15E Strike Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle is an all-weather multirole fighter, derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15E was designed in the 1980s for long-range, high speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic warfare aircraft. United States Air Force F-15E Strike...
s were dispatched there.
Airstrike
Joint Direct Attack Munition
The Joint Direct Attack Munition is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs" into all-weather "smart" munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System receiver, giving them a published range of up to...
bombs be dropped onto each of the two trucks at 2:30 am.
The bombs struck two minutes later, exploding the oil tankers in a fireball that incinerated many of those around. The video in the German tactical operations center showed a huge mushroom cloud
Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
blanketing the area and revealed only a few fleeing survivors out of the 100 or so people that had previously been present on the screen.
It is unknown exactly how many people were killed in the resulting explosions but estimates of the death toll have ranged from 56 to 179. The governor of Kunduz, Mohammad Omar, stated that 90 people had been killed, amongst them a local Taliban commander and four Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
fighters. An anonymous senior Afghan National Police
Afghan National Police
The Afghan National Police - ANP - is the primary national police force in Afghanistan. It serves as a single law enforcement agency all across the country. The Afghan police force was first created with the establishment of the Afghan nation in the early 18th century...
officer said that around 40 civilians were killed in the blasts. A NATO fact-finding team estimated a day after the incident that about 125 people were killed in the U.S. airstrike, and that at least 24 – but perhaps many more – of those killed had been Afghan civilians. A later German investigation found that up to 142 people died in the attack, including over 100 Afghan civilian victims.
The strike occurred as villagers gathered to collect fuel from the tankers. The governor of Kunduz province has said that Taliban leaders are among the dead and was supportive of the ISAF attack. NATO has said its commanders had believed that only insurgents were in the vicinity. German forces had responded to the hijack at 12:30 pm and exchanged fire with militants within 40 minutes of arriving, but were unable to reclaim the vehicles.
German forces stated that the strike took place after an unmanned surveillance aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
had determined that there were no civilians in the area. German officials said the strike took place 40 minutes after the commanders requested it. It is unclear whether civilians began to assemble during that time, but one eyewitness claims that up to 500 people from surrounding villages swarmed the tankers for free fuel.
Reaction
Reaction to the airstrike was mixed. Critics blamed the Germans for allowing the infiltration of the north by the Taliban, although in fact there has been a Taliban presence in the area since the late 1990s and several major battles were fought against them in the area during the US/Northern Alliance invasion in 2001. The Germans insisted that they were taking a more aggressive stance. The FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
foreign minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
s all generally criticized the airstrike, while German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung
Franz Josef Jung
Franz Josef Jung is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union . He became Federal Minister of Defence in the Grand coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel on 22 November 2005...
emphasized the danger posed by the stolen tankers. General Stanley McChrystal
Stanley A. McChrystal
Stanley Allen McChrystal is a retired four-star general in the United States Army. His last assignment was as Commander, International Security Assistance Force and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan...
made a statement on Afghan television and visited the site of the bombing the following day; a NATO team charged with investigating the airstrike also arrived at the scene.
In an interview with Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
released on September 7, 2009, Afghan President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
said:
U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was quoted by CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
as saying, "Of course, you don't know all the facts until an investigation's complete. And I clearly don't know all the facts now, and would not want to affect a potential investigation by making some conclusion that might be inappropriate. But from what I have seen today in going to the hospital, it's clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at that site." Afghan President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
has long been critical of the high civilian death toll
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
caused by the tactics of the NATO International Security Assistance Force
International Security Assistance Force
The International Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 by Resolution 1386 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement...
. News investigations called it the bloodiest German military action since World War II, although the actual attack was carried out by the US Air Force.
While initially downplayed by German's government which was busy in an election campaign at the time, the airstrike then dominated political debates in Germany for several months and in November 2009 led to the resignation of German labor minister Franz Josef Jung
Franz Josef Jung
Franz Josef Jung is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union . He became Federal Minister of Defence in the Grand coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel on 22 November 2005...
, who was defense minister during the attack. In early 2010, further material came to light, especially about the political handling in the German government, which brought further pressure on a number of people, including Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg is a German politician of the Christian Social Union ....
, the new defense minister. The major German newsweekly Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
, in an exhaustive research article published in February 2010, called the incident a war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
due to the fact that the attack on the tankers had broken a number of rules of conduct, and had led to a later cover-up.
German public prosecuting authorities investigated the case, but announced on 20 April 2010 that the investigation was concluded and that no criminal proceedings would be initiated against Colonel Klein and Hauptfeldwebel (Master Sergeant) Wilhelm. They stressed that, according to their findings, neither the German penal code nor international criminal code had been violated; it was found that Colonel Klein and the soldiers under his command acted reasonably according to the information available to them at the time. It was explicitly stressed that later findings about the true situation (namely the presence of civilians) could not make the action illegal in retrospective.
Political consequences
On the day of the events, September 4, 2009, the Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung (CDU) defended the attack that was ordered by the German commander Colonel Georg Klein. On 8 September, NATO admitted that there had been a number of civilian casualties. On September 9, a report was made by the German military police (FeldjägerFeldjäger
For the German Military Police in WWII see: Feldjaegerkorps and FeldgendarmerieIn presence Feldjäger is the name of military police of the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. The term Feldjäger, literally meaning field huntsmen or field Jäger, has a long tradition and dates back to the mid-17th...
) in which civilian victims are mentioned, including children.
Several German officials initially justified the airstrike: including on October 29, the Germany Army's Chief of Staff, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan
Wolfgang Schneiderhan (General)
Wolfgang Schneiderhan is a German general who served as Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, from 2002 to 2009.-Military career:...
and on November 6 the newly appointed Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg is a German politician of the Christian Social Union ....
(CSU).
On 26 November, Wolfgang Schneiderhan
Wolfgang Schneiderhan (General)
Wolfgang Schneiderhan is a German general who served as Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, from 2002 to 2009.-Military career:...
, and deputy Defence Minister (Verteidigungs-Staatssekretär) Peter Wichert had both resigned over allegations of a cover-up relating to the incident. A local commander was recalled to Germany while the public prosecution authorities investigated if international law had been breached; the commander only had one source of intelligence, who could not see the lorries, which was a violation of the rules of engagement designed to minimise civilian casualties in air attack missions.
On November 27, Franz Josef Jung submitted his resignation as Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesarbeitsminister), a position he had accepted after the September federal election, after repeatedly denying civilian deaths in the attack. The political parties SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, Linke
The Left (Germany)
The Left , also commonly referred to as the Left Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The Left is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag....
and Grüne
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
announced the forming of an investigation committee.
On December 3, in the German parliament, Guttenberg calls the airstrike unjustified. On December 9, the German weekly "Der Stern
Stern (magazine)
Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
" published that Guttenberg had received a report of the International Red Cross already on November 6 in which civilian casualties were mentioned.
On December 10, it was revealed that the German Special Forces (KSK
Kommando Spezialkräfte
The KSK Kommando Spezialkräfte is an elite military unit composed of Special Operations soldiers from the ranks of Germany’s Bundeswehr and organized as such under the Division Spezielle Operationen . The unit has received many decorations and awards from both NATO and its affiliates...
) were indirectly involved in the airstrike.
On December 18, Schneiderhahn was replaced by Volker Wieker
Volker Wieker
Volker Wieker is the Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces. As the highest ranking officer of the Bundeswehr he is the government's chief military adviser and the general ultimately in charge of its operations...
.
In February 2010 German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle [] is a German liberal politician, who, since 28 October 2009, has been serving as the Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and who was Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He is the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions...
announced the Afghanistan deployment was being reclassified as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", which would allow German soldiers based in Afghanistan to act without the risk of being prosecuted under German law.
Casualties
Initially the BundeswehrBundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
did not investigate the results of the air strike, and for months acted as if there had been no civilian casualties. A German lawyer of Afghan descent, Karim Popal, identified 179 civilian victims, threatening legal action. A Bundeswehr investigation then identified 102 families of civilian victims. In June 2010 Germany announced it will pay $5,000 to each of almost all of the identified families, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability.
The earlier official Afghan report about the incident lists 119 dead. This includes 49 armed militants, 20 unarmed militants, 30 civilians and 20 unidentified.
The first independent estimate of the death toll, on September 7, 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a prominent Afghan human rights group, said that up to 70 civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
s had been killed in the U.S. airstrike. The non-governmental group reached the figure based on interviews with local residents that indicated that 60 to 70 non-combatants had died in the airstrike, as well as more than a dozen armed men.
The Taliban said they had also set up a commission to investigate the incident, and released a list of 79 civilians – showing name, father's name, and age – that they claimed had been killed in the airstrike. The list included 24 children under the age of 18.
See also
- Azizabad airstrikeAzizabad airstrikeThe Azizabad airstrike took place on Friday 22 August 2008 in the village of Azizabad which is located in Shindand district, Herat Province, Afghanistan...
- Deh Bala wedding party bombingDeh Bala wedding party bombing- Investigation :An investigation ordered by President Karzai and led by a nine-man commission of the senate found that 47 civilians including the bride had been killed, this was also confirmed by human rights officials....
- Granai airstrikeGranai airstrikeThe Granai airstrike, sometimes called the Granai massacre, refers to the killing of a large number of Afghan civilians, mostly children, and including women, by American aircraft on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan...
- Sangin airstrikeSangin airstrikeSangin airstrike refers to the killing of a large number of Afghan civilians many of whom were women and children, in the village of Sangin in Helmand province Afghanistan on July 23, 2010....
- Uruzgan helicopter attackUruzgan helicopter attackUruzgan helicopter attack refers to the killing of a large number of Afghan civilians including four women and one child, another 12 were wounded...
- Civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Further reading
Portrait photography of family members of those killed in the airstrike, with further information in GermanExternal links
- Pictures of tanker wreckage and casualties from BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
- ISAF press release on airstrike
- Video of Kunduz airstrike from Bild
- Video of Kunduz airstrike raw footage from Bild
- One Year After the Kunduz Air Strike - No Sign of a Full Investigation Der Spiegel, August 30, 2010