The US military announced on Wednesday that it was investigating an air strike on a home near the northern city of Kunduz last week that reportedly killed 14 members of a single family, including eight women and three young children.
Reuters reports Afghan officials confirmed the deaths, which resulted from July 19 combat operations conducted by Afghan forces backed by American air strikes. However, the officials said it was still unclear how the 14 relatives died. US military officials last week confirmed American warplanes bombed the area in support of Afghan forces but, as is usually the case, they said there were no indications of civilian casualties.
There were certainly such indications on the ground. Local residents and officials said there were some 20 people living in the house that was bombed, all of them from one extended family. In addition to the 14 people killed, two other children, ages 5 and 3, were hospitalized with serious injuries, while three other children managed to escape from the home when the bombing began.
"I don’t know why they attack civilians," local resident Rahimullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, told the New York Times. Rahimullah, who drove the tractor used to excavate the bombed home and dig up the victims’ bodies, said two of his nephews were killed in the strike.
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