German lawmakers demanded explanations Monday for how and why their soldiers in Afghanistan, normally restricted to peacekeeping duties, triggered a NATO airstrike that killed approximately 100 people. Political fallout from the attack jolted Germany's election campaign just weeks before the vote and threatened to sour relations with the United States.
Aides to Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would address the German Parliament on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on her defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, who at first insisted that the attack killed only Taliban forces but later acknowledged that civilians were among the dead.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Potsdam said they were considering whether to open a homicide investigation into the decision by a German military commander to order the airstrike by a U.S. fighter jet, which blew up two hijacked fuel trucks and a crowd of bystanders early Friday in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.
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