External links
- Rethink Afghanistan Footage Exposes One of the Worst Civilian Casualty Incidents of the War
- NATO Forces in Afghanistan Can’t Deny They Killed Civilians in Sangin Anymore
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On July 23, 2010, a NATO attack killed and injured many Afghan civilians, most of whom were women and children, in the village of Sangin in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
The Afghan government claimed that a helicopter-gunship rocket strike killed 52 civilians. [1] Many other civilians including children were also injured and treated at Kandahar hospital. [2] [1] [3] For weeks, US military and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials denied that there had been any such incident. [4]
About 200-400 people took to the streets in Kabul, protesting the killing of civilians by foreign troops, carrying photos of those who died in the airstrike. [5] [6]
The Karzai government sent investigators to the site, who concluded that 39 civilians were killed in the rocket strike.
According to a statement by the Presidential Palace, the investigation confirmed that 39 civilians had been killed by NATO-led troops in Sangin. [7] The figure was lower than the initially reported 45–52. According to the investigation, all 39 dead were women or children.
