Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Afghan failed resuce mission update

Two Navy SEALS missing in Afghanistan have been found dead, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday night. Another SEAL was rescued on Saturday, and the fate of a fourth SEAL was unknown. The official who confirmed the recovery of the two bodies spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing effort to account for the missing U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, an American airstrike in Afghanistan's rugged eastern mountains killed 17 civilians, including women and children, an Afghan official said Monday. The U.S. military confirmed civilian deaths but said the numbers were unclear.

[...]

The serviceman rescued on Saturday had taken shelter in an Afghan village elder's home in the province before American forces were notified of his location and picked him up

[...]

An initial airstrike destroyed a house, and as villagers gathered to look at the damage, a U.S. warplane dropped a second bomb on the same target, Kunar provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa told The Associated Press.

  SFGate article

Thanks for taking care of the soldier, though.

No news about how the dead SEALS were killed or where they were found. The Chicago Tribune says the Pentagon and Afghan officials declined to provide details.

A Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed last week that militants had captured one member of the team and said he was a "high-ranking American" caught in the same area as where the helicopter went down, but refused to elaborate.

   Pak Tribune article

Afghanistan on Tuesday condemned the killing of up to 17 civilians in a U.S. airstrike [...]

[...]

``The president is extremely saddened and disturbed,'' said Jawed Ludin, President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff. ``There is no way ... the killing of civilians can be justified. ... It's the terrorists we are fighting. It's not our people who should suffer.''

A government team is on its way to the site to investigate the bombing, a Defense Ministry statement said.

  Guardian article

I guess they're not buying that bit about, when you bring your families to camp with you...
Speaking about the U.S. airstrike, Wafa told The Associated Press that an initial strike destroyed a house, and as villagers gathered to look at the damage, a U.S. warplane dropped a second bomb on the same target, killing 17 of them, including three women and children.

He said it was unclear who was killed in the initial attack in the tiny village of Chechal. ``Maybe some militants were killed, but I don't know,'' he said. ``The 17 people were killed in the second bombing.''

The U.S. military said the attack was carried out ``with precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of enemy terrorists and noncombatants.''

[...]

The statement added U.S. forces ``regret the loss of innocent lives and follow stringent rules of engagement specifically to ensure that noncombatants are safeguarded. However, when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk.''

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