Top German general removed over Afghan air strike video
Last Updated: Thursday, November 26, 2009 | 2:23 PM ET
CBC News
Germany's top military official has been removed over the handling of information about a September air strike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, the country's defence minister said Thursday in Berlin.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told the German parliament that Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the country's inspector general, which is the equivalent to chief of staff, asked to be relieved of his duties.
His resignation came after the newspaper Bild published what it claimed were still photographs from a video of the air strike.
The newspaper said that the video shows civilians were likely killed and claimed the German military had the footage even as then defence minister Franz Josef Jung was denying there were civilian victims.
Schneiderhan was forced to resign for failing to hand over the video to political leaders.
Guttenberg said he only saw the video Wednesday, and that Jung, who is now Germany's labour minister, had not seen them.
In the Sept. 4 incident, a German colonel ordered a NATO air strike on two tanker trucks that had been seized by the Taliban near Kunduz. The colonel feared the trucks might be used against his troops.
Estimates vary on the number of civilians killed in the air strike. An investigation by an Afghan presidential commission said that 30 civilians and 69 Taliban died in the attack while Amnesty International has claimed that 83 civilians died.
Jung, who faced calls from some opposition lawmakers to quit the government, defended himself in parliament later Thursday.
"I correctly informed both the public and parliament about what I knew regarding these events," he said.
Earlier this month, Guttenberg said, a classified NATO report concluded there were "procedural errors" in the Sept. 4 air strike but that the colonel's decision to order air strikes was "appropriate in military terms."
At the time, Guttenberg said he assumed there were civilian victims, based on his assessment of the NATO report.
"I regret ... every civilian victim deeply," he said.
The report was prepared by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, appointed a Canadian major-general to lead the investigation along with officers from the U.S. Air Force and German military.
With files from The Associated PressShare Tools
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