An Afghan government investigation into the deaths of 10 civilians in the country's east found they were dragged from their homes and shot dead by foreign troops, the president's office said Wednesday.
The dead included eight school students aged between 13 and 17 years old, a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office said.
International forces based in Kunar province, where the alleged incident took place, told government investigators "they were unaware of the incident", the statement said.
The president assured them that the government will seriously investigate the incident and deal with the culprits in accordance with the law
"A unit of international forces descended from a plane in the Narang district of Kunar province and took 10 people from three homes, eight of them school students in grades six, nine and 10, one of them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot them dead," the statement said, quoting the head of the investigating team.
The investigation was headed by Asadaullah Wafa, an advisor to Karzai and a former governor of Kunar province.
The presidential statement said Wafa was shown documents by the head teacher of the school attended by the students, proving their status.
"Those people that were killed were innocent civilians," Wafa told reporters. The victims were eight boys, aged between 13 and 18, and two men in their 20s, he added.
Karzai had spoken with the father and uncles of the students, offering his condolences and promised a full investigation.
"The president assured them that the government will seriously investigate the incident and deal with the culprits in accordance with the law," the statement said.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has 113,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban insurgency, has told AFP that it had no activities in the area at the time the alleged incident took place.
A senior Western military official said that U.S. Special Forces have been conducting operations in the area, along the border with Pakistan, and that they operate separately from ISAF.
Violence at its highest
Violence in Afghanistan is at its highest level in the eight years since the ouster of the Taliban. More than 2,000 civilians were killed in the first 10 months of this year, a 10 percent rise on the same period in 2008, according to U.N. figures.
But while total numbers of civilian casualties have risen year on year, the number of ordinary Afghans killed by Afghan and foreign forces decreased this year.
Seventy percent of civilians killed in the first 10 months of 2009 died in insurgent attacks, the United Nations said, up from 55 percent last year. Civilian deaths caused by foreign and Afghan troops fell from 38 percent in 2008 to 22 percent in 2009.
Washington is sending in 30,000 more to try and quell the mounting violence. Other NATO countries are sending 7,000 more.
Since taking command in June, the commander of foreign troops, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, has issued new orders designed to reduce civilian deaths by placing limits on the use of firepower.
But for most Afghans, civilian deaths will continue to be an emotive issue.
In Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, which borders Kunar, around 200 university students rallied in the streets to protest, demanding those responsible for the weekend attack be brought to justice.
"We have no more patience. It has happened repeatedly. If it occurs again, we will drop our pens and take arms," one group chanted. Others blamed Karzai and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Comments »