A US military probe has found US staff made significant mistakes in implementing deadly airstrikes in western Afghanistan May 4 that killed dozens of civilians, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
"A military investigation has concluded that American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the airstrikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians," the report said, citing an unnamed senior US military official.
Civilian casualties — often from US air power — have caused mounting popular outrage in Afghanistan and friction with the Kabul government, with US and Western officials worried about handing propaganda victories to their Taliban foes.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded a halt in air strikes after one of the deadliest such incidents of the war in Bala Buluk, where his government says 140 civilians died earlier this month.
"The (US military) official said the civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if American air crews and forces on the ground had followed strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties," the Times report said.
"Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over seven hours would have been aborted," it added.
"The report represents the clearest American acknowledgment of fault in connection with the attacks. It will give new ammunition to critics, including many Afghans, who complain that American forces too often act indiscriminately in calling in airstrikes, jeopardizing the United States mission by turning the civilian population against American forces and their ally, the Afghan government," the Times report said.
Hours earlier the general chosen to lead US and NATO forces in Afghanistan warned in the US Congress on that the war against insurgents could be lost unless civilian casualties were reduced.
Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, nominated by President Barack Obama to take over as commander in Afghanistan, told a congressional hearing that civilian deaths from coalition operations risked alienating the Afghan people and undermining the entire war effort.
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