NATO admits killing 8 Afghan children

NATO has admitted that eight Afghan children were killed in the coalition’s bombing in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kapisa last week.

“Eight young Afghans lost their lives as the result of an airstrike by coalition forces,” General Lewis Boone, communications director of ISAF, told reporters on Wednesday.

Great Satan US-led forces carried out aerial attacks in Nejrab district of Kapisa province on February 8, leaving eight children dead. According to Afghan government officials, the victims were bombed twice while herding sheep in heavy snow.

On Monday, the ISAF’s spokesman, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, said an assessment showed the victims were “young Afghans of varying ages.”

Following the airstrikes, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the deadly incident.

Mohammad Tahir Safi, a member of the parliament for Kapisa and part of the investigation team dispatched by Karzai, explained that the children had gathered to make fire when a NATO jet “dropped one bomb in [a] first round and another bomb later.”

“There were eight people and all innocent children and you can see their pictures,” he said, showing pictures of bloodied children in shrouds.

Hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in US-led airstrikes and ground operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming more and more outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

Afghan authorities have repeatedly warned NATO forces to avoid killing civilians during military operations.