KANDAHAR: Australian troops gunned down two children while they were tending their cattle in southern Afghanistan, local officals said on Saturday.
The incident occurred when the two children, one seven and the other eight, were mistakenly shot dead on Thursday morning as Australian soldiers were responding to Taliban firing in southern Uruzgan province, provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada told media.
“The children were killed by Australian troops, it was a mistaken incident, not a deliberate one,” Akhundzada said, adding that insurgents had first shot at a helicopter carrying Australian soldiers.
A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said he was unable to confirm details. “We are aware of the reports and we take all such reports very seriously,” he said. “An incident assessment team in Uruzgan is now there looking into it.”
DND
