2009 Kunduz airstrike
The 2009 Kunduz airstrike took place on Friday 4 September 2009 at roughly 2:30 am local time, 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of Kunduz City, Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Responding to a call by German forces, an American F-15E fighter jet struck two fuel tankers, killing over 90 civilians in the attack.
| Kunduz airstrike | |
|---|---|
| Part of the War in Afghanistan | |
| Type | Aerial attack (two GBU-38/500lb bombs) |
| Location | |
| Target | Two fuel tankers |
| Date | September 4, 2009 |
| Executed by | USAF F-15E, called in by German forces. |
| Casualties | Up to 200, with over 100 civilians killed |
Because of the high civilian death toll, the airstrike had political repercussions, especially in Germany. In June 2010 Germany announced it would pay $5,000 to each of the families of over 100 civilian victims, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability. The former Afghan Commerce Minister Amin Farhang described the $5,000—equivalent to about 20,000 Afghanis—as a "laughable" sum. Earlier, in February 2010, Germany had reclassified the Afghanistan deployment as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", allowing German forces to act without risk of prosecution under German law.