A U.S. military investigation has concluded that U.S. airstrikes in Afghan in November killed 33 civilians and 27 wounded others, but that strikes were in self-defense, and that the deaths of innocents were regrettable but unavoidable.
“Regardless of the circumstances, I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives,” said Gen. John Nicholson, U.S. Afghanistan commander, in a Thursday morning statement. “On this occasion the Taliban chose to hide amongst civilians and then attacked Afghan and U.S. forces.”
The investigation found civilians deaths occurred when U.S. warplanes attacked buildings that Taliban fighters were using to fire on U.S. and Afghan special forces, and that the U.S. had no way of knowing the civilians were inside at the time.
The battle occurred over two days, Nov. 2-3, when U.S. special operations forces were assisting Afghan forces in a joint operation hunting down Taliban leaders. Upon arrival at the Boz village in Kunduz province, U.S. and Afghan forces began taking fire from multiple buildings.
After taking casualties, the U.S. called in airstrikes to take out the buildings.
“The investigation concluded that U.S. air assets used the minimum amount of force required to neutralize the various threats from the civilian buildings and protect friendly forces,” according to a U.S. military release. “The investigation further concluded that no civilians were seen or identified in the course of the battle.”
The reports also blamed some of the deaths on the detonation of a Taliban ammunition cache that was struck and exploded destroying several of the buildings.
