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German Officer May Have Misled US Fighters in Civilian Disaster

Gave false info to pilots in Afghan tanker strike

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 21, 2009 7:08 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Just before 2am on Sept. 4, German Col. Georg Klein gave a two-word command—"Weapons release!"—and US fighter jets bombed a pair of tanker trucks in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 100 Afghans clustered around them, many of them civilians. Although his tour has ended, the officer is still in Afghanistan, facing a NATO investigation. Klein appears to have misled American pilots when he told them his troops had been in contact with the enemy, and the situation posed an immediate threat, Der Spiegel reports.

Klein lacked the authority to order an airstrike in the absence of those two conditions without consulting NATO forces in Kabul—or even higher up the chain if civilian casualties were a risk. In fact, the trucks had been stuck in the riverbed for hours, and German forces had not carried out reconnaissance. Yet when American F-15 crews asked if the situation posed an "imminent threat," and whether there was contact with the enemy, he responded to both: "Confirmed." The strike has had repercussions not only for the German military but for political leaders; the country goes to the polls this Sunday.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, right, and German Col. Georg Klein, commander of the German base in Kunduz, visit the site where villagers died in a fuel tanker explosion.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, right, and German Col. Georg Klein, commander of the German base in Kunduz, visit the site where villagers died in a fuel tanker explosion.   (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
German colonel Georg Klein on the German base in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009.
German colonel Georg Klein on the German base in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
ChickenChopper
Sep 21, 2009 12:59 PM CDT
sometimes both...
Derni
Sep 21, 2009 12:27 PM CDT
War sucks! Spend money on Americans-health care-etc-Global warming is going to kill off so many in China Iraq Afgan-etc we're wasting our time and lives-the next war will be an attack on the USA for food and water (the next oil) so we better preeserve our boarders
Nwambe
Sep 21, 2009 12:26 PM CDT
Wow... That's unbelievable. Military chain of command, you follow it or people die.

 
Afghanistan • Germany • civilian casualties • fuel tankers • International Security Assistance Force • German army • NATO troops • Georg Klein

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