Chronology of Events

31 August 2010 On 4 September 2009, two F-15 jets attacked a group of people gathering around two tankers on a riverbank of the Kunduz River. The attack was ordered by German Colonel Georg Klein. He intended to kill a few high-ranking Taliban leaders of the Kunduz region. In fact, most of the victims were civilians, among them children. To date, the exact number of people killed and injured is unknown. The official German government estimate comprises at least 102 casualties (91 killed, 11 injured).

Prior to the air strike that took place shortly after midnight, around noon time of 3 September 2009 the two tankers had been hijacked by a group of known Taliban near Kunduz. The tankers were then driven towards a Taliban controlled area south of Kunduz and the German army camp. In the late afternoon, the two tankers got stuck in the Kunduz River. Attempts by the Taliban to free the tankers failed. In the course of the evening, many inhabitants of the surrounding villages showed up out of curiosity or to get fuel from the tankers.

At the same time, the German camp got information from Afghan intelligence sources that the tankers had been stolen and were now stuck. A NATO surveillance airplane discovered the location of the tankers and began to send video images to the German camp. At the camp, four German army members watched the videos and received further information. The primary source of this information was only one Afghan intelligence officer who was not present at the site. He reported via three other persons, including one translator, that only insurgents were present at the site. The German camp was in frequent contact with two American F-15 pilots which arrived around midnight at the scene since Colonel Klein reported troops-in-contact. The NATO Rules of Engagement only allow for sending F-15 jets in case that German groups are endangered. However, this information turned out to be false. After a conversation with the pilots in which various requests by them regarding the imminent danger of the people on the ground as well as the possibility of warnings took place, Colonel Klein decided to attack the civilians with the goal of hitting a large number of local Taliban leaders. About seven hours after the tankers got stuck, Colonel Klein gave the order that the two American F-15 pilots drop two GBA-15 bombs on the crowd.

The bombs hit more than 100 people, most of them civilians. Among them were a considerable number of children. Following the incident, NATO issued a secret report which found a number of violations of the NATO rules of engagements. The ICRC examined breaches of international humanitarian law and came to the conclusion that the attack had been unlawful. Various Afghan bodies conducted own investigations, and Amnesty International published a short report about the number of possible victims.

In Germany, a parliamentary inquiry commission was established to examine the misleading information given by the Ministry of Defense in the aftermath of the event and the attempt by the German military to conceal the high number of civilian victims. The General Public Prosecutor and the Federal Public Prosecutor started investigations, which were terminated rather quickly. Victim representatives negotiated with the Ministry of Defense regarding reparations and 5,000 USD were thus far paid to some victims' families, which might lead to a lawsuit, since in other cases Germany paid up to 33,000 USD to a victim of the German army forces in Afghanistan.