US admits its forces killed three Afghan women

A NATO official also said on Sunday that an Afghan-led team of investigators had found signs of evidence tampering at the scene,including the removal of bullets from walls near where the women were killed. On Monday,however,a senior NATO official denied that any tampering had occurred.

On Sunday night,the US-led military command in Kabul issued a statement admitting that “international forces” were responsible for the deaths of the women. Officials have previously stated that US Special Operations forces and Afghan forces conducted the operation.

The statement said that “investigators could not conclusively determine how or when the women died,due to lack of forensic evidence” but that they had nonetheless “concluded that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men”.

“We deeply regret the outcome of this operation,accept responsibility for our actions that night,and know that this loss will be felt forever by the families,” said Brig Gen Eric Tremblay,a spokesman for the NATO command in Kabul.

The Times of London reported Sunday night that Afghan investigators also determined that American forces not only killed the women but had also “dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath” and then “washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened”.