In May of this year, the United States army killed 30 civilians in Afghanistan as part of a military campaign targeting sites said to be used by Taliban members for the production of methamphetamine, an investigation by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has concluded. UNAMA stated that it had “verified 39 civilian casualties (30 deaths, five injured and four undetermined), including 14 children and one woman, due to the 5 May airstrikes”. In addition, the UNAMA said that it was looking into “credible information” indicating that another 30 civilians may have died as a result of the bombings.
The US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) rejected the report’s conclusions as false, claiming instead that “combined assessments determined the strikes did not cause deaths or injuries to non-combatants.”
In July of this year, the UNAMA released a report stating that pro-government forces including NATO troops were responsible for the majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in the first half of this year.
Read more: US denies report civilians killed in airstrikes on Taliban meth labs
