US and allied mounting operations in Afganisthan to contain the Taliban operations.
A victim of an ISAF airstrike on an oil tanker hijacked by Taliban insurgents is carried into the main hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan
An Afghan official say a NATO airstrike on two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan has killed 90 people, including 40 civilians.
Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin says militants seized the two trucks around midnight near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province. He says the alliance launched an airstrike as the Taliban fighters had stopped the trucks at a river crossing.
One police official estimated that 90 people were killed, and that 40 were civilians. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity over the issue of civilian deaths in the conflict.
Kunduz province Governor Mohammad Omar said as many as 90 people were feared killed, burned alive in the giant blast.
Lieutenant-Commander Christine Sidenstricker, press officer for the U.S. and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said Afghan authorities had reported two fuel trucks hijacked, and NATO air craft spotted them on a river bank.
"After observing that only insurgents were in the area, the local ISAF commander ordered air strikes which destroyed the fuel trucks and killed a large number of insurgents," she said.
"The strike was against insurgents. That's who we believe was killed. But we are absolutely investigating" reports of civilian deaths, she said.
Asked how pilots could know whether a crowd gathered around the truck included civilians or fighters, she said: "Based on information available at the scene, the commanders believed they were insurgents."The blast was thought to have burned alive villagers as they gathered to collect fuel from the tankers when one became stuck in a river.
"My brother was burned when the aircraft bombed the fuel tankers. I don't know whether he is dead or alive," said weeping villager Ghulam Yahya, one of dozens of relatives gathered outside Kunduz Central Hospital in the provincial capital.
The incident also demonstrates the mounting insecurity in the north of the country, an area that had been seen as safe but where Taliban attacks have become increasingly frequent.
Mohammad Sarwar, a tribal elder in the province, said Taliban fighters had hijacked the tankers and were offering fuel to a crowd of villagers when the tankers were bombed.
"We blame both the Taliban and the government," he said.
Under new orders issued in July by the ISAF commander, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, air craft are not supposed to open fire unless they can confirm there is no chance civilians might be hurt or friendly forces are in immediate danger.
Kunduz province Governor Mohammad Omar said as many as 90 people were feared killed, burned alive in the giant blast.
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