The German defense ministry has said it is negotiating a compensation package for the families of the victims of the controversial NATO airstrike ordered by a German commander in September. According to a NATO report, up to 142 people were killed in the strike, including many civilians.

Christian Dienst, a defense ministry spokesman, said the German government was looking into ways to reach a settlement outside the courtroom to avoid "unnecessarily lengthy legal battles."

"We will find a solution," Dienst said, adding that the defense ministry "will have to find out who is entitled to compensation based on the circumstances of the airstrike."

Civilian and Taliban fatalities

On September 4th, Taliban militants hijacked two fuel tankers in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan. Fearing that the tankers could be used in an attack on a nearby German military base, Colonel Georg Klein ordered an airstrike on the hijacked tankers.

When the strike was carried out, the tankers were stalled in a river bed where civilians had gathered with the hope of siphoning off fuel.

"We will have to determine who the civilian victims of the attack were," said Dienst, adding that "an objective means of distinguishing Taliban members from civilians would have to be established."

Apology "not enough"

The defense ministry was reacting to threats to take the German government to court over the incident. According to Karim Popal, an Afghan German lawyer from the northern German city of Bremen, several of the victims' families were looking to take the case to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.

Popal said the goal was to obtain longterm compensation for the those injured in the airstrike and the families of those who died."It will not be enough just to make individual one-off payments of 1000 or 2000 euros ($1,478 - $2,957)", he said.

German television quoted a relative of one of the victims as saying that the airstrike was "not acceptable according to international law." He went on to say that a mere apology from the German government was "not sufficient and in no way could be accepted."

The controversial September airstrike has already led to the resignations of high-ranking German officials, following revelations that information regarding the details of the attack had been withheld. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung and the German military's chief of staff, Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, were forced to step down after German media reports surfaced accusing the men of attempting to cover up the details of the airstrike.

glb/AP/dpa

Editor: Susan Houlton