NATO apologizes as forces kill 27 Afghan civilians

27 killed, another 20 wounded: The dead included a child and four women. It was the third time civilians were killed in NATO strikes in a one-week period.

Kabul, Afghanistan - The relatives of those killed during the latest NATO blunder are demanding NATO leave the country, while NATO is apologizing. NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said:

Today I have spoken to President Karzai to express, through him, my deep condolences to the Afghan people for the tragic loss of innocent Afghan lives in recent military operations.

NATO is in Afghanistan to protect the Afghan people, and we will continue to make every effort to reduce civilian casualties to the absolute minimum.

The Alliance remains committed to helping the Afghan people build a society that is stable and inhospitable to terrorism.

The government of Afghanistan has condemned the attack. Haji Ghullam Rasoul, who lost more than one relative on the weekend, had no kind words for NATO, telling The Times

“They came here to bring security but they kill our children, they kill our brothers and they kill our people. We’ve had enough.”

NATO calls the incident an accident, and said they saw a convoy, which they assumed had been organized by the Taliban. The convoy was hit from the air. Afghans have said the convoy was made up of villagers who were travelling out of the region in the hopes of finding employment. NATO has said it has launched an investigation into the latest error. NATO is currently fighting an offensive in Marjah. The erroneous air attack on the Afghan civilians took place in Uruzgan. The families were in three mini-buses when they were attacked by NATO.