GERMANY HAS played down reports that one of its colonels disobeyed the Nato line of command in ordering an air strike in Afghanistan last Friday that killed at least 70 people, including civilians.
The claim is made in a preliminary report on the incident leaked to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper yesterday.
An unnamed Nato officer told the newspaper it was “completely clear” that Col Georg Klein had not followed Nato procedures when he ordered US fighter planes to bomb two petrol tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban near the northern town of Kunduz.
Another unnamed senior Nato officer in Brussels told Germany’s ARD public television that it “was without a doubt” that the chain of command had been ignored.
“Col Klein would have had to get the green light from the regional commander for northern Afghanistan,” said the officer.
Only in urgent situations where soldiers’ lives are at risk can the chain of command be overruled, the officer added.
“And, with the best will in the world, those criteria were not fulfilled in this concrete situation.”
Germany’s defence ministry said it would only comment on the final report – expected in several weeks – and dismissed the preliminary report as “one-sided”.
On Tuesday Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would “not tolerate” preliminary condemnation of the bombing before all the facts were known.
Extracts of the report indicate annoyance in Nato’s Afghanistan command that new trust-building measures with civilians have been set back by Friday’s attack. “With it we are sowing the seeds for our own defeat,” says the report.
The leaks from the preliminary report, delivered to Nato capitals on Monday, are unlikely to improve the atmosphere between Germany and its Nato allies.
Mocked as “Afghanistan’s weakest link” in the US media, some Berlin officials see the rush to attack Col Klein as payback for German criticism of US bombings in the past that cost civilian lives.
The longer the controversy lasts, the more nervous it is making Germany’s main political party. With the exception of the ex-communist Left Party, they all support the eight-year mission. But they are anxious to have it off the political agenda ahead of the September 27th general election.
German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier said he had asked his Nato colleagues to wait for the final report.
“One cannot make a judgment until one has all the facts,” he said.