Scores of civilians died in last week's NATO air strike on Taliban
insurgents in northern Afghanistan, a prominent domestic rights group
said on Monday in a first independent estimate of the death toll.
Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a non-governmental group funded
by domestic rights campaigners, said in a report based on more than
a dozen interviews with local residents that between 60 and 70 civilians
died in the September 4 strike in the Char Dara district of Kunduz
province.
"Preliminary reports received by ... ARM indicated 60-70 non-combatants died," said the Kabul-based group.
"Even if all the victims were supporters of the Taliban the fact that most of them were unarmed and were not engaged in any combat activity does not warrant their mass killing."
