Amsterdam: The bombing of a residential building by Dutch forces in Afghanistan in 2007 was declared illegal.
According to details, the Netherlands mistakenly bombed a residential complex during the 2007 Afghan Choura Valley battle, a court in The Hague ruled on Wednesday in the case.
The court declared the bombing illegal and ordered the government of the Netherlands to compensate the victims. In 2007, 20 Afghan civilians were killed in an airstrike in the Afghan province of Uruzgan.
The Dutch state argued that the bombing was justified because the Taliban had used the four-walled residential complex for military purposes, but the Dutch court said the armed forces knew civilians lived in the homes.
The court also held that the Ministry of Defense had failed to prove with evidence that the Taliban were using the complex, which could not be inferred from the reports submitted by the state. The court said that the reports contained the records of a few hours before the bombing.
The court said the bombing of the residential complex was a violation of international humanitarian law. The court also rejected the state’s appeal on the statute of limitations.
It should be noted that several victims and surviving relatives of the bombing filed a lawsuit against the Dutch state, saying that they were sleeping in their homes with their families when the bomb fell. The victims demanded compensation from the Ministry of Defense, the court has accepted their request, but the issue of determining the amount is still pending.