21 Afghan Civilians Killed in Air Strikes

By J. Kelman,  Newser User
Posted May 9, 2007 4:52 PM CDT
21 Afghan Civilians Killed in Air Strikes
An unidentified US military official, center, gives money to a victim family member, as Col. John Nicholson, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is seen, left, during a ceremony at in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, May...   (Associated Press)

U.S. airstrikes killed 21 Afghan civilians in eastern Afghanistan late last night, just hours after the U.S. offered an official apology to the families of 19 killed in a March attack. The civilian deaths—as many as 1,000 in 2006 alone—are stirring unrest against NATO forces, even from on high, the Economist reports.

After a deadly spate of attacks last week left 51 dead, President Hamid Karzai warned that the country, "can no longer accept civilian casualties they way they occur," the AP reports. Yesterday, Afghanistan's upper house of Parliament went one step further, calling for an end to international military operations that aren't run jointly with Karzai's government. (More Hamid Karzai stories.)

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