Zeenews Bureau
Beijing: Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced on Thursday that he was cutting short an official visit to China following reports of civilian deaths in a NATO air strike.
Karzai confirmed that 18 people killed in Wednesday’s NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan were civilians. In a statement, the Afghan President further said that the pre-dawn strike on a house in Logar province was "unacceptable”.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has so far confirmed only militant deaths from the strike but has sent an assessment team to investigate allegations that civilians were killed either alongside or instead of insurgents. Villagers displayed 18 bodies on Wednesday, including five women, seven children and six men. Afghan officials said then that some of the dead men were likely militants.
(With Agency inputs)