Fifteen people have been killed in an airstrike that targeted a hotel on the Kandahar-Uruzgan highway near the capital of central Uruzgan province last night, officials said Tuesday.
Local residents said the deceased persons wanted to travel to Iran in search of work and were civilians, but security forces claimed they were Taliban militants.
The airstrike hit the hotel on Monday evening in Sarkhabat area of Shah Wali district of Kandahar near Tirinkot, the capital of Uruzgan.
Uruzgan civil hospital director Dr. Aminullah Tokhi said they had been delivered 13 bodies and nine of the dead belonged to Gezab district.
Uruzgan’s deputy governor Attaullah Fazli, who visited the hospital today, said both Taliban and civilians had suffered casualties in the airstrike.
He said the victims, most of whom belong to Gezab district, wanted to go to Iran for work. He expressed concern over the incident and sought punishment for the perpetrators.
Abdul Razaq, a relative of the victims, said his three cousins had been killed in the airstrike. He said the victims heading to Iran stayed at the hotel for night.
Maj. Sadiq Esa, spokesman for 205th Corps in the south, said based on a tip off, security forces conducted the airstrike in Shah Walikot district which resulted in the killing of 15 rebels.
Foreign forces stationed in Kandahar also confirmed militants had been killed in the overnight airstrike.
The Taliban have not yet commented about the incident.
