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90 killed in Nato air strike on tankers
Alison Richards4 Sep 2009
At least 90 people have been killed in a Nato air strike on two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants in Afghanistan, officials said today.
The militants seized the lorries, which were delivering fuel to Nato forces on the main road to Baghlan in Kunduz province, at about midnight.
One police official said 40 people were civilians out of the 90 killed.
Nato confirmed that many civilians were also being treated in hospital.
Witness Mohammad Daud, 32, said the lorries became stuck in a river so the Taliban told villagers to take the diesel.
“Everyone around the fuel tanker died,” he added.
Mohammad Omar, governor of Kunduz, said the dead were mostly Taliban fighters, including the senior Taliban commander for the district, Abdur Rahman, and four Chechen fighters.
Many were reported to have been injured and seriously burned.
One of the drivers of the hijacked tankers said two of his colleagues had been beheaded when the Taliban seized the vehicles, according to the BBC.
Father of three dies in bomb blast
Tributes were paid today to Lance Corporal Richard James Brandon, 24, of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
The Army driver died instantly when the vehicle in which he was travelling hit a roadside bomb in Helmand Province in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
He lived in Kidderminster and leaves a fiancée, a child and two stepchildren.
Emma-Jayne said: “Richie was a wonderful fiancé and father and stepfather to Martyn, Liam and our daughter Kaitlin.”
Lt-Colonel Gus Fair, Commanding Officer of The Light Dragoons, said: “Through a very tough and demanding period of fighting, he worked relentlessly to keep the troops' vehicles fully operational and battle-worthy.”
