NATO 'Sorry' for Airstrike That Kills Mom, 5 Kids

Military 'deeply saddened by civilian deaths'
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2012 4:54 PM CDT
NATO 'Sorry' for Airstrike That Kills Mom, 5 Kids
A US Predator drone flies over the moon above Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

The US military expressed regret today for killing a mother and five of her children in an airstrike in southwestern Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. The Friday attack, which was aimed at Taliban forces, killed the mother, three girls, and two boys—and possibly eight other civilians, the Washington Post reports. The military "will be formally apologizing in the next couple of days to the family,” said a NATO spokesman. “We are deeply saddened by any civilian deaths." (One study says that 1 in 3 deaths in drone strikes are civilians; 65 civilians were reportedly killed in one US attack.)

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