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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Fri Nov 1, 2013, 09:22 AM Nov 2013

Kunduz Trial: New Scrutiny for Deadly Afghanistan Attack

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/kunduz-trial-lawsuit-seeks-damanges-for-attack-in-afghanistan-a-930858.html



Four years ago, a German military officer ordered an attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 91 people, many of them civilians. Now that criminal charges against him have been dropped, a civil lawsuit is seeking more compensation for the families of some victims.

Kunduz Trial: New Scrutiny for Deadly Afghanistan Attack
By Jörg Diehl and Matthias Gebauer
October 30, 2013 – 03:45 PM

"Confirm that one last time, these pax are an imminent threat," American fighter pilot "Dude 15" radioed to the German forward air controller. For a half an hour on the night of Sept. 4, 2009, two F-15 fighter jets had been circling above a sandbank in the Kunduz River in Afghanistan. Then Staff Sergeant W. spoke the crucial words: "Yeah, those pax are an imminent threat."

Two minutes later, the weapon systems operators aboard the two jets each released a 500-pound (230-kilogram) GBU-38 guided bomb. The two bombs detonated on the ground at 1:50 a.m. local time, striking two tanker trucks Colonel Georg Klein had feared might attack his base.

The blast killed a large number of people -- exactly how many remains unclear to this day. The Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, says 91 people were killed. A NATO report arrived at the figure of at least 142 dead or injured. According to research conducted by lawyers representing the victims, it was 137 people. What is clear beyond a doubt is that this was the most devastating German-ordered attack since World War II.

Since March, the first civil chamber of Bonn's District Court has been hearing a case concerning the deadly military strike. Bremen-based lawyers Karim Popal and Peter Derleder sued the German state, asking for a total of around €90,000 ($124,000) in compensation for damages and suffering to the surviving family members of the airstrike's victims. The Bundeswehr has so far paid about €500,000 in voluntary compensation efforts.
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