According to NRC, this concerns an attack in the Mirabad valley, northeast of Tarin Kowt. On June 11, 2009, two Dutch Apaches fired on a passenger van and an all-terrain vehicle in quick succession, suspecting that enemy fighters were inside.
They did this on the instructions of a flight supervisor of the Australian troops, with whom the Dutch were working at the time.
‘Act lawfully’
The then Minister of Defense, Eimert van Middelkoop (Christian Union), wrote to the House of Representatives that he also assumed that enemy fighters were traveling in the convoy. According to the minister, the Dutch soldiers would have ‘acted lawfully’.
After someone from the UN said that it involved innocent civilians, the Public Prosecution Service promised to investigate, but neither the minister nor the Public Prosecution Service have changed their mind, according to NRC.
Only in 2018 did the Public Prosecution Service decide to initiate a new criminal investigation after new facts emerged. “The Public Prosecution Service cannot make any statements about the nature and origin of the report. The investigation has not yet been completed,” the newspaper writes.
Tags: Public Prosecution Service investigating deadly Dutch air strike Afghanistan
