... Attacks by NATO that cause life and property losses to civilians under no circumstances could be justified and are not acceptable...Kabul, Afghanistan (ANTARA News) - The US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has apologised over the deaths of civilians in an air strike this week, flying personally to the scene to deliver his condolences.
President Hamid Karzai had expressed outrage over the incident in which Afghan officials said 18 civilians including women and children were killed, and cut short a visit to Beijing to return home.
NATO commander General John Allen flew to Logar province "to see local leaders and the population to apologise and offer condolences to the families", spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told AFP.
This was the first public acknowledgement by NATO that civilians died in the air strike on a home in the province in the early hours of Wednesday.
NATO forces initially reported that "multiple insurgents" were killed in the strike, which was ordered after troops were attacked with "small arms fire and a grenade" during an operation against a Taliban insurgent leader.
An AFP correspondent at the scene shortly after the attack saw and filmed the bodies of five women and seven children, one as young as a year old.
"Attacks by NATO that cause life and property losses to civilians under no circumstances could be justified and are not acceptable," Karzai said of the attack.
This is the second time within a month that Allen has had to admit civilian deaths in NATO air strikes that have strained relations between Karzai and the US, which leads NATO forces in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
For the past five years the number of civilians killed in the war has risen steadily, reaching a record of 3,021 in 2011, with the vast majority caused by insurgents, the United Nations says.
(M014)
Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
