German court: No compensation for Afghan airstrike relatives

Published October 06, 2016

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2009 Afghan soldiers and police inspect the site where villagers reportedly died when American jets bombed fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban, outside Kunduz, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, file) (The Associated Press)

A German federal appeals court has ruled that relatives of 91 Afghans killed in a NATO airstrike near the northern Afghan city of Kunduz in 2009 aren't owed further compensation.

The Federal Court of Justice said Thursday there was no evidence that the German officer who ordered U.S. jets to bomb two hijacked fuel tankers had been in dereliction of duty, or violated humanitarian rules protecting civilians, upholding lower court rulings.

Brig. Gen. Georg Klein, a colonel at the time, ordered the airstrike because he feared that insurgents would use the tankers to attack his troops.

Germany paid $5,000 each to the families of civilians who were killed as they tried to syphon fuel from the tankers but some relatives had sought additional compensation from the German government.

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