HERAT, Afghanistan, Aug 24, (Agencies): An investigation has found that more than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in coalition air strikes days ago, an Afghan government minister told AFP Sunday. President Hamid Karzai ordered the investigation into Friday’s operation in the western province of Herat after Afghan officials said high numbers of civilians were killed but the US-led coalition said only 30 militants died. The toll is one of the highest for civilians since international troops arrived in Afghanistan to topple the hardline Taleban regime in late 2001 and comes after a string of such incidents, most of them involving air strikes. “We went to the area and found out that the bombardment was very heavy, lots of houses have been destroyed and more than 90 non-combatants including women, children and elderly people have died,” the Islamic affairs minister told AFP after his visit to Shindand district earlier Sunday.
“Most are women and children,” said the minister, Nematullah Shahrani. Shahrani said his investigation was continuing and he was due to meet US Special Forces who had been involved in the operation with Afghan troops and commandos.
“They have claimed that Taleban were there. They must prove it,” the minister said. “So far, it is not clear for us why the coalition conducted the air strikes,” he said. He said his preliminary investigation had also found that there was no coordination between the Afghan and international troops involved.
Karzai meanwhile issued a decree ordering the “immediate removal” of the top army general for western Afghanistan and a commando commander after the “tragic air strike and irresponsible and imprecise military operation.”
The two were fired for “negligence and concealing facts,” a statement from Karzai’s office said. The strikes have drawn angry reactions from locals, who demonstrated on Saturday, torching a police vehicle and brandishing banners reading “Death to America.”
Meanwhile, the death of 10 French soldiers in an ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan has stoked a cry at home for France to rethink its commitment to the seven-year mission led by the United States. Most French voters want out, and the opposition is ratcheting up the pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government — though analysts say France and other allies will dig in for the fight even as they insist upon a new look at Nato’s strategy against the Taleban and al-Qaeda.
The word “quagmire” has popped up repeatedly when Afghanistan is discussed in Paris political circles — even in Sarkozy’s own party — since Monday’s well-planned ambush of a French-led patrol in the Uzbin Valley east of Kabul.
It was the deadliest attack on international troops in Afghanistan in more than three years, and the latest sign that the insurgency is growing stronger. “The pressure is going to be: How do we get this war right?” said Francois Heisbourg, who heads the state-funded Foundation for Strategic Research think-tank in Paris.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has ordered a parliamentary debate and vote on FranceÂ’s role in Afghanistan, part of a new law requiring a lawmaker vote on foreign military missions lasting more than four months. They are expected to take place between Sept 22 and Sept 30.
Analysts say there is little chance that parliament — where Sarkozy’s conservatives have a large majority — will vote to end France’s participation in the Afghan mission. But Afghanistan is likely to grow in the French public eye.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the defense and foreign ministers will separately face questions from parliamentary panels about the ambush — such as the intelligence failings that led to such casualties in a well-trained French patrol. Aside from the 10 soldiers killed, another 21 were injured.