United States officials acknowledged Thursday for the first time that at least some of what might be one hundred civilian deaths in western Afghanistan had been caused by American bombs. In Afghanistan, residents angrily protested the deaths and demanded that American forces leave the country. Initial American military reports that some of the casualties might have been caused by Taliban grenades, not American airstrikes, were “thinly sourced,” a Pentagon official in Washington said Thursday, indicating that he was uncertain of their accuracy. “It looks like at least some of the casualties were caused by the airstrikes,” the official acknowledged. A second Pentagon official said, “It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a mix,” but added that it was too soon to tell. A more complete report was due from Afghan and American investigators at the scene.Rico says we also need to remember that this is, in the final estimation, a war, and one we didn't start (in case everyone forgot 9.11). In wars, even ones carefully fought, civilians get killed. Anyone remember Germany? Now there was a war, and one in which we bombed the shit out of civilians, and did it deliberately. Or Japan? Our years of fire-bombing wouldn't work in target-poor Kabul, but a nuke would certainly rearrange the landscape, even in Afghanistan. How about Vietnam? A few civilians got blown up there, too. (Artillery, bombs, rockets, napalm, whatever...) Now, this is not to say that we should be bombing civilians. But let's remember who we're dealing with here: these are people for whom 'surrender' is a word they don't understand. The Taliban, unlike the Germans, the Japanese, or even the Vietnamese, are not fighting a war in terms we understand. They are more like the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, who were also fighting an ideological war. The Taliban, too, will not surrender. The Afghans have been fighting 'foreign devils' since the British and the Russians arrived in the 1800s, and will be happy to go on doing so indefinitely... (It's a bitch, that 72 virgins thing.) And how come it's perfectly okay for them to blow themselves up and kill twelve civilians, including children, yet if we do the same thing we're baby-killing bastards?
The deaths drew hundreds of Afghans into the streets to protest outside police stations and the governor’s office in Farah Province, where two villages were bombed after Afghan forces were ambushed by Taliban insurgents on Monday night. Outside the governor’s office, police officers fired on demonstrators who threw stones, wounding three of them.
The United States defense secretary, Robert Gates, questioned by journalists as he visited Kabul, apologized for any loss of innocent life. But he said that “exploiting civilian casualties and often causing civilian casualties are a fundamental part” of the insurgents’ strategy. “We regret any— even one— innocent Afghan civilian casualty,” he said. “And we will make whatever amends are necessary.” He said that he had heard initial reports indicating that the casualties might have been caused by Taliban grenades, not American airstrikes, but said that he had no confirmation.
The number of civilians killed in military operations, particularly American bombing raids, has become a chief source of Afghan disenchantment with the war against the Taliban. The United Nations estimated that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in fighting last year.
Villagers and Afghan lawmakers disputed the initial American claims that Taliban grenades had caused the casualties. Muhammad Naeem Farahi, a Parliament member who is from the area and has followed the case closely, laughed at the suggestion. “No, that’s not true,” he said, “and I am someone who supports the American presence.” He said he had gathered no reports of civilians wounded in the firefight before the bombing. He accused the Americans of using petty criminals as informants who often gave false reports and might even work for the Taliban.
Asked to repeat their accounts of what happened in their villages on Monday, two villagers reached by telephone gave the same details of the sequence of events as before. Fighting broke out when Taliban fighters attacked Afghan Army and police forces at a police checkpoint on the main road some 500 yards from one of the sites that was bombed, said Muhammad Jan, whose village, Shiwan, was bombed.
The fighting did not reach the village or cause casualties there, he said. The Taliban pulled back into the village and then left the area. Later, planes came and bombs fell, but by then no Taliban fighters were in the village. The bomb damage was so extensive that it could not have been caused by grenades, Mr. Jan said. “Taliban have no strong weapon to bring these kinds of casualties” he said. “The Taliban did not throw grenades into civilians’ houses.”
Jamil Ahmad, who lives in another bombed village, Granai, supported the account. “The battle finished and the Taliban retreated,” he said, adding “They did not stay in the villages.”
Protesters interviewed by telephone said they demanded a withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. In the main city of Farah Province, traders closed stores and said they would not reopen them until the airstrikes had been fully investigated and the demonstrators’ demands were met. Three high-ranking officials met the protesters and offered to resign in sympathy, according to Allauddin Khan, a tribal elder who was among those who met with the local officials.
Secretary Gates’s remarks did little to relieve the anger. He accused the Taliban of using civilians as shields and of causing civilian casualties by hiding among noncombatants during attacks in a tactic to divide the population from the government and its American supporters. He said civilian casualties had dropped forty percent so far, compared with last year, while casualties among Afghan security forces and American and coalition troops were up 75 percent. Mr. Gates arrived in Kabul after visiting troops in southern Afghanistan and bases that are being expanded for some of the additional American forces President Obama requested.
Elsewhere, in Helmand Province in the south, a suicide bomber on a motorbike struck a NATO convoy as it was passing through the main street of Gereshk. The blast killed twelve civilians, including children, and wounded 32 others, a government spokesman said.
08 May 2009
Oops is now a military term
Rico says the article in The New York Times by Elisabeth Bumiller and Carlotta Gall tells of terrible things for the Afghans:
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