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Franz Josef Jung, Germany's labor minister, has resigned from the country's cabinet over a deadly bombing in Afghanistan, a day after the army chief stepped down.
Jung resigned hours after saying he had no plans to quit over the bombing of two oil tanker lorries in the northern province of Kunduz, which took place in September while he was serving as defense minister.
Germany's Bild newspaper reported on Thursday that videos and a secret military report had clearly pointed to civilians having been killed during the attack at the time when the government and the army was saying only Taliban fighters had died.
Jung acknowledged this week that he had not seen the report and videos on the attack and said on Friday he was resigning to take "political responsibility".
Two days after the raid, which took place on September 4, Jung said that "only Taliban terrorists" had been killed in the incident.
But the Afghan government found that 69 Taliban fighters and 30 civilians had died, while a report by the Nato military alliance said the air raid killed between 30 and 40 civilians, as well as a number of fighters.
Army chief's exit
General Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Germany's highest-ranking soldier, and Peter Wichert, a senior defense ministry official, stepped down on Thursday following the Bild allegations.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had conspicuously failed to ride to Jung's aid following the resignations, saying only that full transparency was crucial to win confidence in the Afghan mission.
In a devastating front-page editorial entitled "Resign Please", the Financial Times Deutschland said: "Franz Josef Jung failed as defense minister and should resign from his position as labor minister."
It said: "It would be no loss to the cabinet. There's nothing more to say."
Handelsblatt, a business daily, said: "The man is out of his depth. No doubt about it, he has to go."
Political opportunity
Smelling ministerial blood just weeks after Merkel formed her new cabinet after her crushing election victory, opposition parties also piled in with vigor.
"Mr Jung is not suitable for a government position," said Susanne Kastner, chair of the defense committee in Germany's parliament and a member of the main opposition party, the Social Democrats.
Hans-Christian Stroebele, a senior Green party politician, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper it could not be the case "that the defense ministry is some sort of madhouse where the top people don't know what's being reported in Afghanistan".
Germany has about 4,500 soldiers serving in Afghanistan and polls show the mission is becoming increasingly unpopular at home.
PHOTO CAPTION
German Labour Minister Franz Josef Jung announces his resignation during a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 27, 2009.
Al-Jazeera
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