80 Taliban, fuel theives killed in air attack

NY Times:

A NATO airstrike early Friday killed at least 80 people, many of them civilians, in a once-calm region of northern Afghanistan that has recently slipped under control of insurgents, Afghan officials said.

Hours after the airstrike, NATO officials in the Afghan capital acknowledged that a coalition aircraft had attacked and destroyed two fuel tankers in the tiny village of Omar Kheil, 15 miles south of Kunduz.

The officials said the airstrike had targeted insurgents, but Afghan leaders said the attack killed many civilians who were siphoning fuel from the trucks.

...

Late Thursday, a gang of Taliban guerrillas hijacked the two tanker trucks on the main highway south of Kunduz, Afghan and NATO officials said, and drove the trucks to Omar Kheil. But when they came to a river the trucks could not cross, they stopped and told villagers to siphon off the diesel fuel, Afghan officials said. Scores of villagers came out, carrying all sorts of containers.

...

“After assessing that only insurgents were in the area, the local I.S.A.F. commander ordered an airstrike, which destroyed the fuel trucks, and a large number of insurgents were reportedly killed and injured,” Commander Truelove said. “I.S.A.F. has received information that civilians were killed and injured in this attack, and in conjunction with Afghan officials are currently conducting an investigation.”

Stealing fuel is a dangerous thing, particular if it belongs to someone with attack aircraft. Added to that is the danger the Taliban oppose to civilians by camouflaging themselves as civilians. That is the toxic fuel to got this groups of Taliban and their supporters killed, and will probably stir the debate about killing "civilians" again.

CNN has an update on the attack. It appears that the military is letting the Taliban get away with labeling fuel thieves as civilians. It is one of the things the Taliban has been good at. In fact they are much better at information warfare than we are.