Hospital, witnesses commenting on alleged coalition airstrike; ADDS shots

• published: 21 Jul 2015
• views: 0

Gereshk, Helmand Province 1. Various street scenes 2. Wide of wounded boy on bed 3. Various of wounded child on bed 4. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Mohammed Khan, victims' relative: "Last night NATO forces conducted an airstrike on our village. More than 60 civilians from our village were killed. Seven of my family members were killed in this bombing." 5. Doctor treating injured boy 6. Injured child with Mohammed Khan 7. Wide shot of hospital Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province 8. Wounded woman, Divi Zohra on bed 9. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Divi Zohra, Injured woman: "Police and Taliban fighters were fighting, there was an airstrike on the village, some members of my family were killed and others were wounded in the airstrike." 10. Close up of injured child 11. Mid of two injured children 12. Various of injured child crying STORYLINE: US-led coalition airstrikes in southern Afghanistan left at least 30 people, including women and children, killed or wounded, a local official said on Saturday. Taliban fighters tried to ambush a joint US-Afghan military convoy in Helmand province's Gereshk district late on Friday before fleeing into a nearby village for cover, said Mohammad Hussein, the provincial police chief. Airstrikes targeted the militants in the village of Hyderabad, said Dur Ali Shah, the mayor of Gereshk. Shah said 30 to 35 people were killed or wounded but he could not provide an exact breakdown. Villagers reported far more than 30 casualties but those figures were not immediately corroborated by officials. "Last night NATO forces conducted an airstrike on our village. More than 60 civilians from our village were killed. Seven of my family members were killed in this bombing," said Mohammad Khan, a resident of Hyderabad. Khan said seven members of his family, including his brother and five of his brother's children, were killed by airstrikes. "Police and Taliban fighters were fighting, there was an airstrike on the village, some members of my family were killed and others were wounded in the airstrike,'' said Divi Zohra, who was injured in the strike. Those injured in the airstrike were taken to hospitals in the Gereshk and Lashkar Gha. Six houses were destroyed during the clash, Shah said. Shah said he did not know the number of Taliban casualties. The US-led coalition acknowledged that some civilians were killed during the clash, which followed machine gun, mortar and rocker propelled grenade attacks on a joint Afghan-coalition patrol. Civilians deaths caused by US and NATO-led troops have infuriated Afghans and prompted President Hamid Karzai to publicly condemn foreign forces for carelessness and viewing Afghan lives as cheap. He has urged restraint and better coordination of military operations with the Afghan government, while also blaming Taliban for using civilians as human shields. Violence has soared in Afghanistan with more than 2,800 people, mostly militants, killed in fighting this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western military and Afghan officials. A count by the United Nations and an umbrella organisation of Afghan and international aid groups shows the number of civilians killed by international forces was slightly greater than the number killed by insurgents in the first half of the year. An AP count based on figures from Afghan and international officials found that militants killed 178 civilians in attacks through June 23 and that Western forces killed 203. The US and NATO say they don't have civilian casualty figures. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d09d1263d00dcf21c5e706a5ba1ab1e7 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork