2009 Kunduz airstrike

Kunduz airstrike
Part of the War in Afghanistan
TypeAerial attack (two GBU-38/500lb bombs)[1]
Location
Kunduz City, Kunduz province, Afghanistan
TargetTwo fuel tankers
DateSeptember 4, 2009 (2009-09-04)
Executed byUSAF F-15E,[1] called in by German forces.
CasualtiesUp to 200, with over 100[2] civilians killed

The 2009 Kunduz airstrike took place on Friday 4 September 2009 at roughly 2:30 am local time,[3] 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of Kunduz City, Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Responding to a call by German forces, an American F-15E fighter jet struck two fuel tankers, killing over 90 civilians in the attack.[2]

Because of the high civilian death toll, the airstrike had political repercussions, especially in Germany. In June 2010 Germany announced it would pay $5,000 to each of the families of over 100 civilian victims, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability.[2] The former Afghan Commerce Minister Amin Farhang described the $5,000—equivalent to about 20,000 Afghanis—as a "laughable" sum.[4] Earlier, in February 2010, Germany had reclassified the Afghanistan deployment as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law.[5]

  1. ^ a b Chandrasekaran, Rajiv (2009-09-05). "NATO Probing Deadly Airstrike". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference spiegel-20100806 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Chandrasekaran, Rajiv (2009-09-06). "Sole Informant Guided Decision On Afghan Strike". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  4. ^ "Afghan politician calls German air strike payouts 'laughable' - the Local". www.thelocal.de. Archived from the original on August 8, 2010.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference spiegel-20100211 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).