Afghan Families 'Will Be Compensated' - NATO

A Survivor of the NATO Raid on Saturday

Nato admitted killing nine civilians in Naw Zad district on Saturday, though local Afghan officials put the death toll at 14, including 12 children. After the attack, a delegation of villagers carried the bodies of eight children to the provincial governor’s house shouting: “See they aren’t Taliban!”, according to reports.

General John Toolan, commander of Nato forces in south western Afghanistan, said: “Any loss of life is a true tragedy and I extend my personal condolences to the families and friends of the US Marine, and to the people of Afghanistan for those who were killed or injured.

“The coalition takes each civilian injury or death extremely seriously. It is our top priority to prevent civilian causalities and we continue to improve our practices and strive to prevent these types of incidents from happening.”

He said a US Marine had been killed when his patrol was ambushed on Saturday and five attackers had fled to a compound where they continued to fight.

Airstrikes were called in on the building during the ensuing battle, but “unfortunately, the compound the insurgents purposefully occupied was later discovered to house innocent civilians”. The families of those killed would be 'paid compensation' he said.
It is clear this was a revenge attack for the Marine killed. A collective reprisal in other words. More on this to follow. Unlike many of the previous such civilian slaughter episodes by Nato, a large number of Arabic and European news agencies are following this massacre up. This is the only reason they took the trouble to issue their pathetic apology. They usually don't even bother.