NATO Probes Fatal Afghan Airstrike

Dozens of Civilians May Be Among Dead in U.S. Strike on Hijacked Fuel Tankers; Some Victims Buried in Mass Grave

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    U.S Gen. Stanley McChrystal, left, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and U.S. Rear Admiral Gregory J. Smith, center, NATO's director of communications in Kabul, are surrounded by Afghan and German soldiers as they visit the site of Friday's airstrike where up to 70 people, many reportedly civilians, died outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

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    Afghan security forces stand guard near a burnt fuel tanker in Kunduz, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. A NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said. (AP Photo)

    
    
    
    
    
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    Local Afghans bury their villagers, killed in a NATO air strike, in a mass grave near Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (AP Photo)

    
    
    
    
    
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    Rahmatullah, 19, a victim of Friday's NATO air strike, tries to sit up on his bed in a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

    
    
    
    
    

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(AP) Last Updated 10:13 a.m. ET.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is visiting the site of an airstrike where villagers reportedly died when American jets bombed two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal waded through knee-high water to inspect the blackened tankers, which exploded when a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jet dropped two 500-pound bombs.

On Saturday, reporters traveling with McChrystal saw that about a dozen small yellow fuel cans had survived the blast. Several were still full of fuel.

Local officials have said about 70 people died in the northern province of Kunduz, but it was unclear how many were militants and how many were villagers who had rushed to the scene to siphon fuel from the trucks.

Friday's pre-dawn strike occurred despite McChrystal's new orders restricting use of airpower if civilian lives are at risk. High civilian casualties in military operations have enraged Afghans and undercut support for the war against the Taliban.

Before traveling to the site of the bombing, McCrystal met with local Afghan leaders in the provincial capital. He expressed sympathy for any civilian losses and said the fight against the Taliban should not come at the expense of civilian lives.

"I am here today to ensure that we are operating in a way that is truly protecting the Afghan people from all threats," he told the officials.

At least one local official supported the allied bombing, saying it would help drive the insurgents from the area.

"If we did three more operations like we did yesterday morning, the Kunduz situation would be peaceful and stable," said Ahmadullah Wardak, a provincial council chief.

An aide to McChrystal, who briefed reporters, said the general was taking reports of civilian deaths "very seriously."

McChrystal discussed the incident with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and later told senior commanders that "we need to know what we are hitting," the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity under command policy.

McChrystal told reporters Saturday in Kabul that he wanted to find out what happened in Kunduz "so that we first can prevent it from happening again - or minimize the chances that it happens again - and correct anything that we might be able to correct about it like helping the injured."

A 10-member NATO investigative team flew over the site on the Kunduz River where the U.S. jet, called in by the German military, bombed the tankers, which reportedly had become stuck trying to cross a river. German officials have said the Taliban may have been planning a suicide attack on the military's nearby Kunduz base using the tankers, which were hijacked carrying NATO fuel supplies from neighboring Tajikistan.

The investigative team led by U.S. Rear Admiral Gregory J. Smith, NATO's director of communications in Kabul, also spoke to two wounded villagers in the Kunduz hospital, including a boy and a farmer with shrapnel wounds.

Smith said it was unclear yet how many civilians were at the site of the blast. "Unfortunately, we can't get to every village."

Mohammad Shafi, 10, who was injured in the blast and shifted to Kabul for treatment, said that his father had told him not to go near the stolen tankers, but he went anyway. "While I was going to get the fuel, on the way I heard a big bang, and after that I don't know what happened," he said from his hospital bed, with bandages on his arm and leg.

A bomb blast, meanwhile, hit a German military convoy Saturday, damaging at least one vehicle and wounding four troops, none seriously. Kunduz provincial police chief, Abdullah Razaq Yaqoobi, said a suicide car bomb caused the blast, though German military officials said it was a roadside bomb.

An AP reporter at a nearby German base said the blast created a shock wave that could be felt inside the base. The thousands of German troops in Kunduz have come under increasing militant attack in a region that had largely escaped the scale of violence seen in the east and south of Afghanistan.

Germany said 57 fighters were killed in Friday's airstrike and no civilians were believed in the area at the time, based on surveillance of the tankers by a drone aircraft. NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, acknowledged some civilians may have died, and the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government announced a joint investigation.

Local government spokesman Mohammad Yawar estimated that more than 70 people were killed, at least 45 of them militants. Investigators were trying to account for the others, he said.

The local governor, Mohammad Omar, said 72 were killed and 15 wounded. He said about 30 of the dead were identified as insurgents, including four Chechens and a local Taliban commander. The rest were probably fighters or their relatives, he said.

Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, and villagers buried some in a mass grave.

The deputy U.N. representative to Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, said Saturday he was "very concerned" about the reports of civilian deaths.

"Steps must also be taken to examine what happened and why an airstrike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present," Galbraith said.