NATO to Investigate as Troops Kill Three Civilians in Helmand

NATO Says Civilians Died During Combat

by Jason Ditz, November 10, 2010

NATO says it is “looking into” the circumstances through which its troops accidentally killed three civilians and wounded another during “combat operations” in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

NATO’s report on the incident provided no additional details of how the deaths happened, but it appears to have happened in the Sangin District, which US troops recent took control of after years under British occupation.

Tensions between US and British troops have grown over their different styles of handling Sangin, with US troops complaining the British weren’t aggressive enough and British troops saying the US was making too many enemies in the region.

Recently released Pentagon statistics have showed that the number of civilians being killed by US troops have risen considerably since Gen. David Petraeus took control over the Afghan War. His predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, made numerous not-entirely-successful efforts to reduce the civilian toll, efforts which led to complaints that he was harming troop morale.

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