Fighter Aircraft Just Fail In Civil Wars

In some ways, it might be better to ban the use of fighter aircraft altogether, these most inappropriate of tools. And note the initial, reflexive lies about the people they struck being Taliban. Like they say, truth is the first casualty of war:

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A U.S. warplane summoned by German troops fired on hijacked fuel trucks in Afghanistan before dawn Friday, killing as many as 90 people in an incident that could trigger a backlash against NATO.

NATO initially said it believed the casualties were all Taliban fighters, but later acknowledged that large numbers of wounded civilians were being treated in hospitals in the area.

Villagers said their relatives were siphoning fuel from the hijacked trucks and were burned alive in a giant fireball. Patients arrived in hospitals completely covered with burns.

...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. NATO aircraft 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.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Eric Tremblay later said: "It would appear that many civilian casualties are being evacuated and treated in the local hospitals."

A U.S. defense official said the strike was carried out by an American F-15 jet. Germany's Defense Ministry said permission to fire had been granted by a German commander on the ground.

...Preventing civilian deaths has been one of the main themes of the new ISAF commander, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who took command in June and says the main goal of the war is to defend Afghan civilians, not hunt down insurgents.

Under orders he issued in July, aircraft are not supposed to fire unless they are sure there is no chance civilians can be hurt, or they are responding to an immediate threat.

The United Nations deputy envoy in Kabul, Peter Galbraith, said an investigation must answer "why an air strike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present."