NATO launches probe into deadly Swedish clinic attack
Date
2/25/2016 10:11:34 AM
Kabul:NATO said Thursday it has launched an investigation into an attack on a Swedish charity clinic in Afghanistan that killed three and which was blamed on the Afghan army and "foreign soldiers."
A NATO spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the presence of foreign troops but told AFP the alliance had opened "a preliminary probe to determine if the allegations concerning civilian victims are credible."
The raid -- which happened in the early hours of February 18 in the unsettled central Wardak Province -- involved Afghan special forces and foreign soldiers according to the charity involved the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA).
Officials from the United Nation's UNAMA mission also pointed the finger at Afghan forces condemning the raid during which it said two patients and a 15-year-old boy were summarily executed without explanation.
The Swedish charity which runs health education and other development programmes in almost half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces called Thursday for "explanations" from the Afghan government and foreign forces as well as an independent investigation.
In Stockholm Cooperation Minister Isabella Lovin condemned recent attacks against clinics in Syria Yemen and Afghanistan which she said were "deeply worrying."
"The countries concerned have a duty to investigate crimes against international law including in the case" of the Wardak attack she added in a statement recalling that Afghanistan was one of the biggest recipients of Swedish development aid.
On paper NATO's remaining 13000 soldiers in Afghanistan are only there for training and as advisers for the Afghan army.
But in practice they are increasingly finding themselves drawn into fighting. Three were injured in a class with Taliban fighters at the start of this week.
The Afghan Taliban on Thursday released a video which they said showed anger trigged by the raid in Tangi Saidan.
"It's a barbaric attack!" says one old man presented as a local resident. "Afghan civilians were killed in this attack" he added in the 13-minute video. Three bodies are then shown described as "martyrs of the hospital."
While far less active online than the Islamic State group Afghan Taliban often film propaganda videos allegedly showing the "barbarity" carried out by foreign fighters in their country.
The day after the attack Afghan authorities gave conflicting accounts of what happened. The governor of Wardak province Hayatullah Hayat said the zone was under Taliban control and talked about an "operation against insurgents" that night while denying that it involved the clinic.
Wardak southwest of the capital Kabul has been the scene of some of the most violent battles between NATO forces and the Taliban.
AFP