As many as 90 people – many of them civilians – were killed early Friday after NATO forces launched an airstrike in a normally peaceful region of northern Afghanistan, NATO officials acknowledged. Although the airstrike on two fuel tankers in the tiny village of Omar Kheil had targeted insurgents, many civilians were killed as they siphoned gasoline from trucks, Afghan leaders told The New York Times. “Eighty to 90 people were killed,” said the district governor of Ali Abad, Haji Habibullah. “Some of them were civilians and some of them were Taliban fighters.” Part of the Ali Abad district is controlled by Taliban commanders. On Thursday, several Taliban guerrillas hijacked the two tanker trucks and took them to Omar Kheil, NATO officials said. Scores of villagers came out carrying all sorts of containers, writes the Times. “The air attack exploded the tankers, and people close to the trucks were blown to bits,” the paper reports, citing Gen. Razag Yaqoobi, police chief of the Kunduz Province. “Some of those farther away died from severe burns.” He said he saw a dozen badly burned men in their 20s and 30s. Local people said they did not believe them men were from the area. “After assessing that only insurgents were in the area, the local International Security Assistance Force (the NATO-led military alliance in Afghanistan) commander ordered an airstrike, which destroyed the fuel trucks, and a large number of insurgents were reportedly killed and injured,” press officer Lt. Cmdr. Sam Truelove of the British Royal Navy said. “I.S.A.F. has received information that civilians were killed and injured in this attack, and in conjunction with Afghan officials are currently conducting an investigation.”