Stockholm, September 06: A NATO bombing in Afghanistan that killed scores of people was a major mistake, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday as Germany defended the strike which its troops instigated.
“This was a big mistake,” Kouchner told reporters as he arrived for a second day of talks with his EU counterparts in Stockholm. “We have to enquire and to denounce those responsible.” German troops had ordered the air strike yesterday because of the danger posed by Taliban militants who had hijacked fuel tankers in the northern Kunduz region of Afghanistan, Germany’s Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Saturday.
He sought to justify the air strike saying in the Bild newspaper: “When just six kilometres away from us, the Taliban take two fuel tankers, that represents a serious danger for us.” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn also denounced the NATO bombing yesterday that triggered an outcry over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops in an eight-year war.
–Agencies