NATO admits killing 8 schoolboys in Afghan raid

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has admitted that the killing of eight schoolboys in a night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence.

"Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack. We don't now believe that we busted a major ring," The Times quoted NATO sources as saying.

Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.

Officials had claimed that the victims were involved in making and smuggling improvised explosive devices.

But NATO sources now admit that the victims were all aged between 12 and 18, and were not involved in insurgent activity.

Two men, whose children and other relatives were killed, provided pictures of their dead sons, a sketched map of the compound and copies of the compensation claim forms signed by local officials detailing their sons' names, relatives and positions at school.

Farooq Abdul Ajan, who lost two sons, two brothers, three nephews and a cousin in the raid, said that the soldiers had no idea whom they were killing.

Afghan investigators, local officials and Parliamentarians from the province maintain that the boys were innocent.

Mohammed Afzal, Narang's district police chief, insisted that United States' Special Forces were involved in the raid.

The Independent Human Rights Commission said that more than 63 civilians had died in the NATO-led offensive in the past two weeks.