PAN, June 18, 2013

NATO airstrike kills teenagers in Logar

The dead included two 18 years old and one 12-year-old boys

A NATO airstrike killed three teenage boys in the Baraki Barak district of central Logar province, an official said on Tuesday.

The strike took place on Sunday evening in the Tokal village, the district chief, Mohammad Rahim Amin, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The dead included two 18 years old and one 12-year-old boys, he said, adding an investigation had been launched into the attack.

June 6, 2012: Afghan villagers with the bodies of children reportedly killed in the NATO air strike. (Photo: Sabawoon Amarkhil/AFP)

Resident Abdullah said NATO helicopters targeted villagers who were playing games, killing three of them.

He asked the government to thoroughly investigate the incident because the slain boys had no connection with any insurgent group.

But ISAF media office in Kabul said a precision strike a day earlier had killed three enemies of Afghanistan, after positively identifying hostile intent in Baraki Barak district.

“ISAF is aware of outside reports claiming civilians may have been harmed. ISAF is currently gathering facts and assessing the situation,” the force said in respose to a Pajhwok email.

Elsewhere, a civilian car hit a roadside bomb in the Marja district of southern Helmand province, killing one occupant of the car and injuring three others.

The Tuesday morning blast happened in Qari Sadi area of the district, the governor’s spokesman Omar Zwak said. Two children were among the injured, he said.

The blast came a week after four civilians were killed in a similar incident elsewhere in the province.

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