Pentagon Report: More Civilians Killed By U.S. Air Strike In Afghanistan

October 8, 2008 7:52 p.m. EST

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - Pentagon investigators have found that 33 civilians, not five to seven as initially reported, died from the U.S. aerial strike in Afghanistan on August 22.

The investigators' report, which included eyewitnesses' accounts, also indicated that the air strike in the Shindand District of the western Afghan province of Heart killed 22 suspected Taliban militants.

Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, ordered the investigation after the Afghan government and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan claimed 90 civilians were killed, mostly women and children.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the civilian deaths during his visit to Kabul weeks after the airstrike.