Reuters
March 10, 2011
SourceAn elderly relative of President Hamid Karzai has been shot dead by Nato forces during a botched night raid in southern Afghanistan, stoking controversy over the war's civilian toll.
The mistaken killing of civilians by Nato troops is one of the most persistent sources of friction between Mr Karzai and his Western backers, and was back in the spotlight this month after Washington offered a rare apology for the death of nine Afghan boys gunned down by helicopters while collecting firewood.
Yar Mohammad Khan, a cousin of Mr Karzai's father, was shot dead when he emerged from his house during a raid by foreign troops in Kandahar, said provincial council head Ahmad Wali Karzai, who is also the president's brother.
"While the operation was going on in the area, Khan walked out of his house and he was shot dead by mistake by ISAF forces outside his house," he said.
He said Mr Khan's house, in the Dand district of Kandahar, was not the target of the raid.
Nato-led forces said in a statement they had killed the father of a Taliban leader during a night raid in Kandahar, after they spotted him holding an AK-47 automatic rifle.
Mr Karzai's spokesman said the president and Mr Khan came from the same village. "The president is sad to hear about another civilian casualty case, and has ordered an investigation," spokesman Waheed Omer said.
Mr Karzai condemned the March 1st killing of nine Afghan boys during a Nato air assault in eastern Afghanistan, clouding a visit by US secretary of defence Robert Gates this week to assess the ground before the start of a planned US troop draw-down in July.
Last year was the most lethal for non-combatants since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, with a 15 per cent rise in civilian casualties to 2,777, the United Nations said in a report yesterday.
Some 75 per cent were killed by insurgent attacks. Coalition forces are still responsible for a substantial number of deaths and the killings are often a flashpoint for both popular and government anger in the country.
Reuters