From our partners at The Agonist

Sept. 2

Reuters – An apparent air strike by foreign forces killed six election campaign workers in Afghanistan’s north today, a government spokesman said, and NATO-led forces said hey were investigating the incident.

Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces while hunting militants have been a major source of tension between President Hamid Karzai and Western nations. Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.

Today’s attack happened in the Rostaq district of Takhar, a relatively peaceful province in the north near Tajikistan, said a spokesman for the provincial governor, unlike areas in the south and east where the resurgent Taliban are mostly active.

Spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi said the candidate, Abdul Wahid, and some of his supporters were wounded in the air strike, which Tawhidi said included two helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft.

“Six of his campaigners have been killed in the aerial attack,” Tawhidi said.

He said the number of casualties could rise and that he had been told of the strikes by security officials.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said investigations were under way.

“We are now aware of the allegations and we’re looking into the operations taking place in the area,” the spokesman said