NATO airstrike kills at least 27 civilians in Afghanistan

20:14, 22 February 2010

MOSCOW. February 22. KAZINFORM A NATO airstrike killed at least 27 civilians in southern Afghanistan, hundreds of miles away from the town of Marjah, where a large-scale offensive against Taliban militants is underway, the Wall Street Journal said on its website on Monday, quoting Afghan officials.

The airstrike reportedly hit a group of minibuses carrying women and children in a remote area near the border between the Uruzgan and Daykundi provinces.

The paper quoted the NATO's Afghanistan task force as saying its forces believed the minibuses were carrying insurgents.

NATO said the minibuses were attacked with "airborne weapons," without elaborating on what weapons were used.

The paper quoted the statement as saying troops then went to the scene "and found women and children," who were taken to a NATO facility for treatment.

President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet put the death toll at 33, but Uruzgan province's deputy governor Khudai Rahim said the latest reports from the scene indicated that 27 people, including at least five women and one child, had been killed. Earlier, Rahim said most of the dead were women and children, the paper said.

Afghan and NATO officials reportedly ordered an immediate investigation into the incident, Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

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