NATO missile which killed Afghans 'not off course': general

LONDON, Feb 16, 2010 (AFP) - A NATO strike that killed 12 Afghans at the weekend was not a "rogue missile" and hit where it was intended, the British commander of international forces in southern Afghanistan said Tuesday.

NATO forces have resumed using the type of rocket involved, after probing what went wrong, he said.


"We know now that the missile arrived at the target that it was supposed to arrive at," Major General Nick Carter told reporters in London via video link from Lashkar Gah, in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

During a briefing on an ongoing NATO offensive against Taliban insurgents in the area, of which the strike was part, he said: "It wasn't a rogue missile. There was no technical fault in it."

The use of the missiles had been suspended while an investigation was conducted, but the NATO commander said: "We are using these missiles again, although only one of them has been used since that event."

A military spokesman here said the strike had been aimed at the Taliban and it was not unusual for them to operate from civilian-populated areas.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) originally said that 12 civilians were killed after two rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) had landed about 300 metres off their intended target.

An Afghan interior minister later said three of the dead were fighters.

Carter said there had been "conflicting" reports in the first 24 hours, which he blamed on "the fog of war", but said investigations had revealed procedures governing the use of the HIMARS were "as they should be".

Carter added that "we are being very careful, though, with any aerial delivered munitions" to avoid similar incidents.



(c) 2010 AFP