Top German army officials sacked over Afghan cover-up

BERLIN, Nov. 26 -- Two of Germany's highest military officials, who were accused of covering up their knowledge of civilian casualties of a bombing raid in Afghanistan, were sacked, German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg told the parliament on Thursday.

General Wolfgang Schneiderhan, German armed forces' top officer, and Peter Wichert, a state secretary of defense, have resigned their posts, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg said at the opening of a debate on the extension of the German military presence in Afghanistan.

The mass-circulation Bild newspaper said Thursday that the government had held back video and eyewitness reports detailing civilian casualties in a German-ordered air strike in Kunduz on Sept. 4.

In the attack, a German officer called a U.S. air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers, in which up to 142 people died. The exact number of civilian victims is as yet unknown, but is suspected to be in the dozens.

Germany has up to 4,500 soldiers in the northern Kunduz region as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led force there.

The Kunduz attack caused outrage in Germany, where, according to opinion polls, a majority of the population opposes involvement in the Afghan war.