Several German officials initially justified the airstrike: including on October 29, the Germany Army's Chief of Staff, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan and on November 6 the newly appointed Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU). On 26 November, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and deputy Defence Minister ("Verteidigungs-Staatssekretär") Peter Wichert had both resigned over allegations of a cover-up relating to the incident. A local commander was recalled to Germany while the public prosecution authorities investigated if international law had been breached; the commander only had one source of intelligence, who could not see the lorries, which was a violation of the rules of engagement designed to minimise civilian casualties in air attack missions. On November 27, Franz Josef Jung submitted his resignation as Germany's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs ("Bundesarbeitsminister"), a position he had accepted after the September federal election, after repeatedly denying civilian deaths in the attack. The political parties SPD, Linke and Grüne announced the forming of an investigation committee. On December 3, in the German parliament, Guttenberg calls the airstrike unjustified. On December 9, the German weekly "Der Stern" published that Guttenberg had received a report of the International Red Cross already on November 6 in which civilian casualties were mentioned. On December 18, Schneiderhahn was replaced by Volker Wieker. In February 2010 German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced the Afghanistan deployment was being reclassified as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", which would allow German soldiers based in Afghanistan to act without the risk of being prosecuted under German law. Colonel Georg Klein on the other hand has been promoted and appointed Brigadier General in 2013. Initially, the Bundeswehr did not investigate the results of the air strike, and for months acted as if there had been no civilian casualties. A German lawyer of Afghan descent, Karim Popal, identified 179 civilian victims, threatening legal action. A Bundeswehr investigation then identified 102 families of civilian victims. In June 2010 Germany announced it will pay $5,000 to each of almost all of the identified families, as an ex gratia payment without admitting liability. The earlier official Afghan report about the incident lists 119 dead. This includes 49 armed militants, 20 unarmed militants, 30 civilians and 20 unidentified. The first independent estimate of the death toll, on September 7, 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a prominent Afghan human rights group, said that up to 70 civilians had been killed in the German requested U.S. airstrike.