ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: Over 1200 civilians have been killed in the three weeks of air strikes on Afghanistan by the US-led coalition forces.

This was stated by deputy ambassador of Afghanistan Sohail Shaheen while speaking at a book-launching ceremony here on Saturday.

He said that the US, without providing a solid evidence of Osama bin Laden’s involvement in the Sept 11 attacks on the US landmarks, had allied itself with other countries to destroy Afghanistan because of “Afghanistan’s independent and Islamic character.”

“They want to put in place their secular set-up to keep a grip over our country in order to maintain military presence in the region to watch its interests of oil and natural resources of the Central Asian States protected,” Mr Shaheen said.

He said despite Taliban government’s offer to let the OIC investigate the terrorism charges against Osama bin Laden, the US rejected the offer and started bombing the country.

He recalled that the US had punished the country by slapping tough sanctions through UN and now it had created a coalition of Western countries to attack the country.