KABUL, Afghanistan — Sixty-five civilians, including 40 children, were killed in a NATO assault on insurgents in eastern Afghanistan earlier this month, according to findings of an Afghan government investigation released Sunday.
Tribal leaders had alleged that dozens of civilians were killed in the operation in Kunar province, which involved rocket and airstrikes, but NATO has not confirmed any civilian deaths.
The attack inflamed tensions between the Afghan government and NATO forces, and both sides opened investigations.
Civilian deaths have been increasing in recent months as insurgents appear to become more indiscriminate in their targets, attacking banks, supermarkets and sporting events. At least three separate attacks Sunday, including one targeting spectators at an illegal dogfight, killed nine Afghan civilians and two NATO service members, officials said.
But allegations of civilian deaths from NATO forces, who pledge to protect the population, often cause much more anger.
NATO has said that video of Kunar operations on Feb. 17 - the main event of more than three days of fighting - showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents, not civilians.
However, the Afghan team investigating the attack found that 65 civilians had been killed, including 40 children age 13 and younger, said Shahzada Masoud, one of the investigators. The group presented its findings Sunday to President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai’s office said he was concerned by the findings.
The team reached its conclusions after four days of interviews with local authorities, residents, hospital officials and security forces, said Masoud,who is Karzai’s tribal affairs adviser.
The team did not look into the number of militants killed or consider the NATO footage since it was only asked to identify civilian deaths, Masoud said.
The team shared its findings with NATO investigators in Kunar, but could not reconcile the differences. “They [NATO officials] told us that there might be civilian casualties as a result of this operation but not the high number we have found,” he said.
A NATO spokesman, Rear Adm. Vic Beck, said Sunday that according to preliminary findings, seven to nine civilians may have been injured. “For any civilian casualty that occurred as a result of operations, we are deeply sorry and will work to make amends to the families involved,” he said.
A spate of insurgent attacks in recent weeks have killed scores of civilians, weakening the Taliban’s assertion that theytry to avoid civilian casualties in their attacks on government and NATO forces.
In Sunday’s deadliest attack, twin blasts in southern Afghanistan killed eight people who had gathered for an illegal dog fight.
The explosion in Kandahar province’s Arghandab district also wounded five police who had gone to break up the group, said district Police Chief Niaz Mohammad.
It was unclear who the target of the attack was, though a witness said it was unlikely that it was the police.
Also in the south, a NATO service member was killed by a bomb blast, the international military coalition said. Another was killed in an insurgent attack in the east. The force did not provide the nationality of the victims or other details. Thirty troops serving with international forces have been killed so far this month.
Officials in Kandahar city said that a NATO vehicle therehit a roadside bomb and that either dead or wounded were carried away in a helicopter, though it was not clear if this was the same attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kandahar city blast.
In the western city of Herat, a roadside bomb that appeared to be targeting a passing police vehicle killed a 10-year-old boy, said provincial spokesman Shafiq Ahmad Behrood. No police officers were killed, he said.
In a separate development, the Canadian government said a Canadian tourist visiting Afghanistan is missing.
Emmanuelle Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, said Sunday that Canadian officials are working with Afghan authorities to secure the release of the citizen.
Lamourex said Canada strongly advises against travel to Afghanistan.
The Taliban said in an e-mailed statement that they are holding a Canadian whom they detained in the city of Ghazni, southwest of the capital.
In southwestern Pakistan, gunmen torched two NATO oil tankers, a police official said Sunday.
Abdullah Lango said the attack occurred in the area of Mangocher, about 250 miles east of Quetta, on Sunday. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province.
He said the attackers fired at the tankers but let the drivers go before torching the vehicles.
Information for this article was contributed by Heidi Vogt of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/28/2011