German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has described the decision to call in strike aircraft to destroy two tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan on 4 September as "proportionate." In a press conference on the NATO report on the incident, which estimates the number of casualties in the air strike at 17-142, Guttenberg said the air strike was "militarily proportionate given the overall threat."

Photo: Bundeswehr/Alexandra Bucurescu

The commander of the German provincial reconstruction team in Kunduz, Col. Georg Klein, ordered the tankers destroyed for fear they could be used by the Taliban in suicide bombings.

Guttenberg regretted any civilian victims of the strike, which was reportedly carried out by two US Air Force F-15Es. Although he said the NATO report found procedural errors which have resulted in the first training lessons learned by the Bundeswehr, Guttenberg said, "Even if there had been no procedural errors, the air strike would have had to have taken place."

No disciplinary measures are planned against Klein, but
the German Federal Office of the State Prosecutor is deciding whether to investigate the incident. Some have gone as far as calling for the case to be brought to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Others blame the Bundeswehr's lack of firepower in Afghanistan for the incident. A former Bundeswehr officer said the two tankers could have been destroyed before civilians started gathering around it if Germany had PzH 2000 howitzers or Tiger combat helicopters in Afghanistan to do the job.