A NATO airstrike killed three children in Afghanistan‘s Helmand province on Sunday, Afghan officials said Monday.
“Two Taliban mine-planters were identified and targeted by ISAF from the air and killed,” district police chief Ahmad Shah Khan told AFP. “Three children, two boys and a girl, who were nearby collecting firewood were also killed,” Khan added.
The claim that two insurgents and three children were killed was corroborated by another Afghan official in Helmand.
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan confirmed the airstrike took place and said three insurgents were killed, but that it would investigate the claims that children were killed.
NATO airstrikes rather frequently kill innocent Afghan children and other civilians in a war that a large segment across the American political spectrum now believes is useless and a failure.
The NATO response to killing innocents in airstrikes is typically to claim an investigation has started, or that they formally apologize. No accountability for the loss of life is forced on the military occupiers who are needlessly killing Afghans.
NATO at its best again.
Why do they hate us? Why?
Probably won't get the same amount of press that the girl shot by the Taliban has recieved. We be good, they be bad. Or at least what Americans wish to believe.
Even the "mineplanters" should be allowed to fight against invaders to their land, but I suppose our "good guys" have to be welcomed for as long as they choose to stay. What do children matter when the security of the USA is at stake???
When they're not blowing kids up with drones, they're giving them birth defects via depleted uranium.
The U.S. should be made liable for every death or disability they cause and fined heavily. Their reign of terror has already gone on for too long!
I wonder if the dead kids and their injured mates can be given names and the latter sent to the fancy british hosplital that is treating the west's latest poster girl?
So the alleged 'mine planters' were identified from the air, and an attack was launched. That means the EXACT location of those mines was known by the GPS coordinates, and that also means the drone operator knew there were children nearby. And he let go a missile- or missiles- with the full knowledge the kids wold be caught in the area of effect. That's not 'collateral damage'- that's murder. There was no clear and present danger from the mines, as we knew exactly where they were, and the children were certainly no threat. If you want the guys, go send a team to pick them up- you're tracking them from the air, so you know exactly which house to go to.
But no, it's easier to kill them in place along with a bunch of children. And guess what? The mines are probably still there, just waiting for someone to walk or drive over them.
I guess Afghan children are not as valuable as Syrian children, right nato.