At least 14 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a NATO air raid in the Afghan southern province of Helmand, local authorities say.
US Marines in Helmand's Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement."During the air strike, two civilian houses were targeted which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded," it said.
The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women.
[...]
Aslam, a local elder of Nawzad district, said he "lost 12 relatives while 10 others including children were injured" in the air strike.
He said some shots were fired at ISAF helicopters which flew into the area, adding that the choppers returned after 10 to 20 minutes and fired rockets, killing the "innocent civilians".
We like to punish severely.
Helmland...isn't that the area where we had such an ingenious and sterling plan to turn into a model for future projects? (Yes, it is.) But wait…there’s more…
Afghan authorities said on Sunday NATO had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, in air strikes against fighters, as violence picked up in recent weeks with the start of the fighting season.Separately, the governor of Nuristan on Sunday said that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by "friendly fire" during recent US-led air strikes against al-Qaeda-linked fighters in his troubled northeastern province.
[...]
The police and civilians were targeted on Wednesday after they were mistaken for al-Qaeda-linked fighters, Jamaluddin Badr said.
[...]
"Civilians were killed because the Taliban ... [who] ran out of ammunition fled into the civilians' houses and then the civilians were mistaken with the Taliban and fired upon," the governor said.
Mistaken for Taliban – as though we’re gullible enough to think that they weren’t simply “collateral damage.”
Major James of ISAF said those allegations were also being investigated.[...]
"Our initial reporting does not indicate civilian casualties in that air strike," he added.
No doubt.
Karzai on Saturday ordered his defence minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, to take over control of night raids from the NATO forces.Karzai's administration says most civilian casualties occur during such operations and that night raids of civilian homes drive war-weary Afghans against his already-fragile administration.
Reacting to the alleged deaths of 10 children, two women and two men in an air strike on Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, Karzai said such incidents were "murdering of Afghanistan's children and women."[...]
"The president said that US and NATO troops have been repeatedly told that their arbitrary and unnecessary operations cause the deaths of innocent Afghans and such operations violate human and moral values but it appears that (we) are not listened to," the statement said.
[...]
"The president called this incident a great mistake and the murdering of Afghanistan's children and women, and on behalf of the Afghan people gives his last warning to the US troops and US officials in this regard," his office said, adding that he "strongly condemned" the killings.
We may have to replace Karzai soon.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!