Germany Calls For Probe Into Air Strike

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for an urgent investigation into an airstrike in northern Afghanistan, amid tension about who was to blame.

Reports have suggested that civilians were among the dozens of victims of Friday's German-ordered air strike.

The Kunduz province raid has strained relations between German and US commanders in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, three members of one family have died in a rocket attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Two other people were injured when the rocket fired early on Monday by insurgents and landed on a house in a western suburb of the city, an interior ministry official said.

In Sunday's joint announcement in Berlin with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Ms Merkel also said a major summit on Afghanistan should be held this year.

The British and German leaders said the meeting should focus on helping Afghanistan to take on more responsibility.

Friday's airstrike - called in after Taliban rebels hijacked two fuel tankers - has caused uproar in Germany, which will hold parliamentary elections on September 27.

Speaking in Berlin last Sunday, Ms Merkel said if any civilians died in the air strike, she would 'naturally deeply regret that'.

'The German government and I personally want to see a Nato investigative team swiftly put together, which will carry out a thorough and quick explanation of what took place,' she said.

Her comments came as the Washington Post reported that the strike might have been ordered in breach of Nato rules. The German commander reportedly called in the raid after seeing live footage of the tankers, with people around them, beamed from US aircraft in the skies above Kunduz.

The footage would have been grainy, US spokesman Rear Adm Gregory Smith told the Associated Press news agency.

The Germans, who also spoke to an informant at the scene, decided the people were militants.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said 'it was clear our soldiers were in danger'. The Washington Post reported that using a single human source for intelligence appeared to breach guidelines aimed at reducing civilian deaths.

Also on Sunday, the latest partial results from last month's Afghanistan's presidential election showed incumbent Hamid Karzai within touching distance of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a run-off ballot.

— BBC