Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake

Jerome Starkey, Kabul & , : {}

A night raid in eastern Afghanistan in that eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basement of inadequate comprehension and should never have been authorised, a Times review has found.

Ten young kids and teenagers died when infantry stormed a remote towering devalue nearby the extent with Pakistan in December.

At the time, Nato claimed that the attack force was targeting a well known mutinous organisation obliged for a array of aroused attacks. Officials pronounced that the victims were concerned in creation and bootlegging makeshift bomb devices. But Western sources close to the box right away establish that the victims were all elderly twelve to eighteen and were not concerned in mutinous activity.

Nato sources contend that the raid should never have been authorised. Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a pardonable attack, an executive in Kabul told The Times. We dont right away hold that we destitute a vital ring.

Related LinksJust WarAssault force killed my family by mistakeWestern forces seen as dignified paragonsMultimediaGRAPHIC: night raid at Kunar

When reports of the raid initial flush eight weeks ago, The Times contacted the infantry arch in Kunar range and afterwards the boys head-master and uncle, Rahman January Ehsas.

Two men whose young kids and alternative kin were killed concluded to come to Kabul to report the incident. They supposing cinema of their passed sons, a sketched map of the devalue and copies of the remuneration explain forms sealed by internal officials detailing their sons names, kin and positions at school. Their story was upheld by Western infantry sources.

Farooq Abdul Ajan, who lost dual sons, dual brothers, 3 nephews and a cousin in the raid, pronounced that the soldiers had had no thought whom they were killing. Afghan investigators, internal officials and MPs from the range all say that the boys were innocent.

Natos statement, released 4 days after the event, pronounced that infantry were pounded from multiform buildings as they entered the village. Yesterday it pronounced that ultimately, we did establish this to be a municipal misadventure incident.

Anger is flourishing over municipal casualties. General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander, has warned that Nato risks vital better by causing municipal deaths. The Independent Human Rights Commission pronounced that some-more than 63 civilians had died in the past dual weeks, together with twenty-seven killed when US special forces systematic an airstrike on a procession of minibuses in the executive Daikundi province. Nato not long ago introduced a new tactical gauge to extent the make use of of night raids, the coalitions arch authorised adviser, Colonel Richard Gross, said. General McChrystal realised that this was one of the areas where we had to shift the approach we do business, or else we would not win this war, he said.

Exactly who carried out the Narang raid is unclear. Colonel Gross pronounced that US forces were benefaction but did not lead the operation. Nato insists that the infantry were not piece of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). US forces formed in Kunar denied any believe of the raid.

Senior Western officers have hinted that the trigger pullers were Afghan; the Afghan Defence Ministry pronounced the infantry were not involved. Mohammed Afzal, Narangs district infantry chief, insisted that US special forces were involved.Assadullah Wafa, who led an Afghan review in to the incident, pronounced that kin would get $2,000 remuneration for each chairman killed.