KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — Two American soldiers and more than 30 Afghans were killed Thursday in the midst of heavy fighting around the northern provincial capital of Kunduz, officials and local residents said.
The soldiers who died brought the number of Americans killed in combat in Afghanistan this month to five, compared with only four known combat deaths in the previous nine months. Two American soldiers were also wounde
d in Thursday’s fighting, the military said.
The governor of Kunduz, Asadullah Omarkhel, said 30 civilians had been killed and 46 wounded in airstrikes, which he attributed to Afghan forces, and he also said four Afghan Special Forces soldiers were killed. Local residents and other officials in Kunduz District, which includes the city of Kunduz and its outlying areas, attributed the airstrikes to the American military.
A New York Times reporter counted 22 bodies brought into the city on the way to the Kunduz hospital, 14 of them children, four women, two older men and two men of fighting age. They were accompanied by a large group of protesters from the village that was hit, Boz Qandahari.
The village, on the outskirts of the city, is in a Taliban-dominated area.
Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland, a spokesman for the United States military in Afghanistan, said American soldiers were in Kunduz District as advisers to an Afghan military operation. He said he could not comment on whether the American deaths were related to the reported civilian casualties, as family members and local officials claimed.
“Friendly forces were receiving direct fire and defended themselves,” General Cleveland said. “We have no evidence at this point of any civilian casualties, but we take all allegations very seriously.” He added, “Although this was an Afghan operation advised by U.S. forces, U.S. aircraft were used to defend all of the friendly forces.” An investigation is underway, he said.
Gen. John W. Nicholson, the American commander in Afghanistan, expressed condolences to the families of the two American soldiers, who have not yet been publicly identified. “Today’s loss is heartbreaking,” he said. “Despite today’s tragic event, we are steadfast in our commitment to help our Afghan partners defend their nation.”
Kunduz became the first city in Afghanistan to fall to the Taliban, for a two-week period last year, and last month, the insurgents nearly overran the city again. On both occasions, they were beaten back by heavy American airstrikes guided by Special Forces troops on the ground, who also took what locals described as an active part in the fighting.
While the reduced numbers of American soldiers, currently about 10,000, are ostensibly in Afghanistan on a “train, advise and assist” mission, President Obama has eased the guidelines on when the American military can actively take part in combat operations.
An Afghan military source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the news media, said that in the joint American and Afghan Special Operations mission, the troops had encountered heavy resistance and been surrounded by insurgents, and had therefore been forced to call in airstrikes.
A statement from the Afghan police in the area put the number of dead Taliban fighters at 14, including a commander named Qari Mutaqi. The police also confirmed that there had been some civilian casualties but did not say how many. Governor Omarkhel, contradicting some details from American and local officials, said that “Americans were not involved in this operation” and that the air support had come from Afghan Army helicopters. “Civilians were killed and wounded in airstrikes and fighting between Taliban and Afghan Special Forces.”
The spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, Gen. Dawlat Waziri, also said that any airstrikes had been conducted by Afghan forces. “Our forces on the ground had air support, which was provided by Afghan choppers — several airstrikes were carried out by our choppers,” General Waziri said. “We are aware of the reports of the civilian casualties in this operation, and M.O.D. appointed a delegation to investigate these reports. We have a group of American advisers in each operation with us, but in this operation no U.S. airstrike was carried out. All airstrikes were carried out by our own choppers.”
The Taliban posted a statement on their Facebook page claiming to have killed 15 American soldiers and saying the airstrike response had killed dozens of civilians.
The office of President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement blaming the Taliban for the apparent civilian casualties. “The enemies of Afghanistan used civilians and their houses as a shield in fighting with Afghan forces in Boz Qandahari area of Kunduz city, and as a result a number of civilians were killed and wounded, including women and children,” the statement said. Among the injured was Mohammad Reza, whose house was bombed about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, giving him a minor head wound. He said that when he and other villagers emerged to collect the dead about 5:30 a.m. Thursday, they were struck again by helicopter gunships and jet planes.
“We left the dead bodies and escaped from the area,” he said, speaking near a group of bodies brought to the governor’s office in Kunduz later in the day. “I lost my four nephews, my father and my brother in the bombing. My wife, my brother’s wife, my mother and my son were injured in the airstrike on my house.”