Afghan Warplanes Attack Wedding Convoy, Kill Four Civilians

Officials say Taliban were 'mixed up with villagers' in procession

Jason Ditz 

Posted onOctober 5, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsAfghanistan

Afghan officials are promising an investigation after a Thursday airstrike in the Kandahar Province killed at least four civilians, including women and children, and wounded eight others. Indications are that this was an Afghan military airstrike.

The officials say they were targeting Taliban militants in the area, but ended up hitting a wedding procession at a nearby village. They claimed the Taliban were “mixed up with the villagers,” though this doesn’t make sense as the airstrike was called in during a Taliban offensive against Afghan troops.

Other Afghan officials claimed that the Taliban were “hiding in people’s houses,” when the airstrike happened, which makes even less sense, since the slain civilians weren’t in houses, they were in an outdoor wedding procession.

US officials have yet to comment on the matter. The Afghan government said US planes were flying with Afghan planes during the strike. NATO has issued a statement saying no NATO planes were involved at all.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/10/05/afghan-warplanes-attack-wedding-convoy-kill-four-civilians/