A German ISAF soldier checks the time before a mission Monday with his unit in the region of Kunduz, Afghanistan. A senior German official on Monday pushed back against criticism of last week’s deadly German-ordered airstrike in northern Afghanistan, arguing that outsiders should withhold judgment pending investigations.

Kunduz, Afghanistan ? An Afghan rights group said Monday a recent airstrike on a pair of hijacked fuel tankers killed as many as 70 civilians in northern Afghanistan, as the German troops whose commander ordered the bombing defended the action.

Afghan Rights Monitor, an independent human rights group, reported that its survey of the area following Friday’s attack shows it killed as many as 70 villagers who were siphoning gas from the vehicles after they became stuck on a sand spit in the Kunduz River.

The group’s report came as the German government backed down from its previous insistence that only the Taliban hijackers had died, conceding some civilians likely were killed

But Germany defended the decision to call in an airstrike, citing fears the tankers could have been used to mount a suicide attack on its troops.

Mohammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz, has also said he fully supported the airstrike, which he said killed up to 72 people — likely all militants.

The Taliban, however, issued a statement calling on the U.N. to join an international investigation of the bombing and claiming that 150 villagers had died. “If they respect human rights and the blood of human beings, they should determine the truth or falsity of this situation,” the statement said.

German soldiers in Kunduz on Monday rejected criticism that their commanders acted rashly in calling in the U.S. warplanes.