Afghan death toll from U.S. bombings rises

Thursday 07th May, 01:46 AM JST

KABUL —

Villagers dug dirt graves Wednesday to bury what the international Red Cross said were dozens of Afghans—including women and children—killed in American bombing runs. A former Afghan government official said up to 120 people may have died.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. “deeply, deeply” regretted the loss of innocent life, and the U.S. military dispatched a brigadier general to investigate the deaths in two villages in western Afghanistan’s Farah province.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen David McKiernan, voiced doubts about whether it was an American airstrike that caused the tragedy.

McKiernan said U.S. military personnel had come to the aid of Afghan forces who may have been ambushed by Taliban militants on Sunday. He said the Taliban beheaded three civilians, perhaps to lure police.

“We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties,” McKiernan said. He would not elaborate but said the United States was working with the Afghan government to learn the truth.

A senior U.S. defense official said late Wednesday that Marine special operations forces believe the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban militants, who then loaded some of the bodies into a vehicle and drove them around the village, claiming the dead were victims of an American airstrike.

A second U.S. official said a senior Taliban commander is believed to have ordered the grenade attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the deaths “unacceptable,” speaking only hours before his first face-to-face meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. Karzai has long pleaded with the U.S. to minimize civilian deaths during its operations, contending that such killings undermine support for the fight against the Taliban.

Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones, said Obama led off his meeting with Karzai by expressing great sympathy over the loss of life and pledging that investigations into what happened in the bombing will be “pursued aggressively.”

The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict jumped 40 percent to a new high last year, though more than half of the deaths were inflicted by Taliban insurgents and other militants, the U.N. has reported. A record 2,118 civilians died from violence last year, up from 1,523 the previous year.

Associated Press photos showed villagers burying the dead in about a dozen fresh graves early Wednesday, while others dug through the rubble of demolished mud-brick homes.

On Tuesday, an international Red Cross team in Farah’s Bala Baluk district saw “dozens of bodies in each of the two locations that we went to,” said spokeswoman Jessica Barry.

“There were bodies, there were graves, and there were people burying bodies when we were there,” she said. “We do confirm women and children.”

Afghan police have said that 25 Taliban died in the fighting, which began Monday and lasted until early Tuesday.

It was unclear whether they were among the dozens of bodies witnessed by the Red Cross.

Tribal elders called the Red Cross during the fighting to report civilian casualties and ask for help, said Reto Stocker, the agency’s head in Afghanistan.

“We know that those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 members of his family who had been sheltering from fighting in a house that was bombed in an airstrike,” Stocker said.

A Western official said Marine special operations forces called in the airstrikes. The U.S. troops responded to a call for help from Afghan security forces who had been attacked by Taliban militants Monday afternoon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

“Because of the overwhelming firepower coming in by the enemy, they called in airstrikes,” said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

Villagers said they gathered children, women and elderly men in several compounds near the village of Gerani to keep them away from the fighting, but the compounds were later hit by airstrikes.

Taliban militants often take over civilian homes and launch attacks on Afghan and coalition forces. U.S. officials say the militants hope to attract U.S. airstrikes that kill civilians, thereby giving the Taliban a propaganda victory.

After a massive case of civilian casualties in the village of Azizabad last August, McKiernan ordered forces to consider backing off from a fight if commanders thought civilians were in danger. Afghan officials and the U.N. say 90 civilians died in Azizabad; the U.S. says 33 died.

Mohammad Nieem Qadderdan, a former district chief of Bala Buluk who visited the site of this week’s battle, said 100 to 120 people were killed. If 100 civilians died in the fight, it would be deadliest case of civilian casualties since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

“People are still looking through the rubble,” Qadderdan said. “We need more people to help us. Many families left the villages, fearing other strikes.”

Provincial authorities have told villagers not to bury the bodies, but instead to line them up for the officials conducting the investigation, Qadderdan said.

Karzai ordered an investigation, and the U.S. military sent a brigadier general to Farah to head a U.S. probe, said Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. spokesman. Afghan military and police officials were also part of the team. The team did not reach the site of the bombings Wednesday but hoped to on Thursday.

Opening a meeting with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department, Clinton said any loss of innocent life was “particularly painful.”

Karzai thanked Clinton for “showing concern and regret” and said he hoped the countries “can work together to completely reduce civilian casualties in the struggle against terrorism.”

State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said later that Clinton’s remarks were offered as a gesture, before all the facts of the incident are known, because “any time there is a loss of innocent life we are going to be concerned about it, and we wanted to make that very clear.”

Kai Eide, the senior U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, said avoiding civilian casualties is a “particularly big challenge” given the increased number of U.S. forces arriving in the country this summer.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates landed in Kabul to meet with troops as the U.S. prepares to send 21,000 more forces to bolster the record 38,000 already in the country to battle an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency.

___

Associated Press reporters Fisnik Abrashi, Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Kevin Maurer in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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Latest 15 of 56 Total Comments Show All

SezWho2 at 12:18 PM JST - 7th May

OnTheRecord,

It doesn't matter whether Americans target innocents or not. (History suggests, however, that they do so when convenient.) Americans certainly kill them--unless, of course, you subscribe to the philosophical position that there are no innocents.

We started the war against the Taliban. We are responsible for all subsequent events. That we do not intend for civilians to die is not an excuse.
nandakandamanda at 12:35 PM JST - 7th May

While all you Lefties and Righties continue to wring your hands and sling schizo accusations at each other, the Taliban are laughing at you. It doesn't matter to them whether the US killed all these people, or whether they did it themselves. They are manipulating American public sentiment as sure as day follows night. If they can increase pressure to pull out, and leave a vacuum for them to step in and rule, they will use every means. Read your history of war.

Hillary Clinton's 'deeply, deeply' regrets are about the best decent thing in this sorry mess.
SezWho2 at 01:11 PM JST - 7th May

nandakandamanda,

Everyone is manipulating American public sentiment, even Americans--Presidents even.
SuperLib at 03:13 PM JST - 7th May

SezWho: Of course the Taliban could kill 100 civilians tomorrow and blame the US, but the point is whether they did this here. Simply resorting to the US propaganda position that this is what they must have done is no substitute for finding the truth of the matter--which is what both Karzai and the US say they want.

And just who is "simply resorting to the US propaganda position" here? I haven't excused the US. The US and Afghanistan say they're currently investigating. The only people who have come to a conclusion are the ones who have decided that the US is guilty. But you don't seem to be interested in talking to them....
SuperLib at 03:20 PM JST - 7th May

SezWho: At this point, it (air strikes) doesn't really seem to have deterred the Taliban. They seem to have instead strengthened.

Correlation is not causation. I think you're smart enough to know that. The strongest evidence actually goes against your theory, especially in Pakistan, where the Taliban have threatened to carry out suicide attacks in Pakistan if the US doesn't stop air strikes against their positions. Needless to say they aren't particularly happy with them.
teleprompter at 03:48 PM JST - 7th May

We started the war against the Taliban. We are responsible for all subsequent events.

The Taliban are militants, a transnational and Islamofascist organization. "Talibanistan" is not a sovereign nation. The Taliban take over failing nations, like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Along with the poster likeitis you absolve these monsters of any responsibility in their affairs; you deny them even their own individuality and any capacity for self initiative.

In your own oddly America-centric worldview groups like the Taliban and Al Qaida can only react to the Big Bad Yankee, and from the Left you cravenly grant them the widest latitude possible in their actions, if the result appears to harm the cause of the US or its allies.

Whatever depredations the Taliban get up to you simply adopt a foreshortened linear perspective: though their organizational rise in modern times more or less began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, ideologically the Taliban ("Seekers", "students") have been around for centuries.

But you simply start the chain of events and the blame game with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
SezWho2 at 05:33 PM JST - 7th May

SuperLib: And just who is "simply resorting to the US propaganda position" here? I haven't excused the US. The US and Afghanistan say they're currently investigating. The only people who have come to a conclusion are the ones who have decided that the US is guilty. But you don't seem to be interested in talking to them....

Hmmm.... I don't think you get to poison the arguments of others by taking swipes at some fictitious "radical left" and then demand an accounting for who is buying into US propaganda. However, you might look at saruzenki's post for one. And if you are honest you will admit that a several others (if not here then elsewhere) take the immediate position that civilian deaths are a Taliban put-up job.

As far as me being not interested in talking to those who take the immediate position that the US must be guilty of some nefarious and criminal act, I must say that you don't seem to be interested in talking to them either. Being sarcastic, yes. Being a partner in real conversation, no.

Correlation is not causation. I think you're smart enough to know that. The strongest evidence actually goes against your theory, especially in Pakistan, where the Taliban have threatened to carry out suicide attacks in Pakistan if the US doesn't stop air strikes against their positions. Needless to say they aren't particularly happy with them.

I think you'll find that I have often made the point that correlation is not causation. So when you speculate upon the degree of my intelligence you are being condescending. Condescension is not an argument.

Of course the Taliban in Pakistan are not happy about the air strikes. But that is not evidence that their position is being eroded. It is every bit as much evidence of desperation to contain a growing Taliban strength. Furthermore, I believe the issue here is Afghanistan and not Pakistan.
SezWho2 at 05:45 PM JST - 7th May

teleprompter: Along with the poster likeitis you absolve these monsters of any responsibility in their affairs; you deny them even their own individuality and any capacity for self initiative.

Nonsense. My point is that the US has greater responsibility.

I suppose that we could go back to the unfair treaty after WW1 and argue that England, France and the US were really responsible for WW2 on account of the unfair treaty. Perhaps we could go even further back. However, the people who initiate hostilities are basically the people who start the wars.

The US started this war as a solution to the bin Laden/al Qaeda problem. It did not solve that problem. But it managed to destroy the defacto government which, although brutal, actually kept fairly good control of the country. We replaced it with a nominally democratic government which does not.

The lack of central government control, the deaths, the renewed opium production, the continued occupation of a sovereign country were all undertaken on US initiative. The US is responsible. The Powell Doctrine says we have to fix what we broke. That's all very well and good unless we cannot.
teleprompter at 05:58 PM JST - 7th May

The US started this war as a solution to the bin Laden/al Qaeda problem.

OBL was a Saudi national. Al Qaeda is not native to Afghanistan. The six-man Taliban council that ruled from Kabul did not include a single member who had ever lived in the city before.

But it managed to destroy the defacto government which, although brutal, actually kept fairly good control of the country.

Actually! Yes, yes, that explains why so many refugees returned:

"The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped3.69 million Afghan refugees return to Afghanistan since March 2002, marking thelargest assisted return operation in its history. In addition, more than 1.11 millionrefugees have returned to Afghanistan without availing themselves of UNHCR’sassistance, bringing the total number of returnees to at least 4.8 million." http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33851.pdf
Madverts at 06:08 PM JST - 7th May

I thought you said the UN was "a joke"?
SezWho2 at 09:36 PM JST - 7th May

teleprompter: OBL was a Saudi national. Al Qaeda is not native to Afghanistan.

Yes. So what? How does that necessitate a war with Afghanistan?

The six-man Taliban council that ruled from Kabul did not include a single member who had ever lived in the city before.

Again, so what? There was no requirement to have been a resident of Kabul in order to govern Afghanistan. I believe there still is not.

Actually! Yes, yes, that explains why so many refugees returned.

Actually, no it doesn't, although your sarcasm is noted. I believe most of the refugees fled before the Taliban took control although there is no question that many fled the Taliban. There are many reasons for return, including:

a) difficulty in making a living in a foreign country, b) expectation that home will be better than before, c) an international "effort" to return refugees, which in some cases may include being less hospitable as hosts, and d) plain ordinary homesickness.

Basically, however, that refugees returned says very little about whether the Taliban kept fairly good control of the country. It more accurately suggests that a good number of people did not like the way the Taliban kept control. Day by day, they seem to be liking Karzai less as well.
Antonios_M at 08:27 PM JST - 9th May

If America is unwilling to fight man to man in order to avoid civilian casualities, then America needs to get the heck of Afghanistan right now.

Dropping bombs on villages accomplishes four things: 1) it kills militants 2) it kills civilians, who are survived by angry people who become militants 3) it makes money for bomb makers 4) it prolongs the war, making money for other war profiteers.

That's right. American soldiers must leave from Afganistan. Let people "liberate" themselves.
BennyCohen at 04:56 PM JST - 10th May

The US bombs Asians. Millions have died. There is a word for this, and it is not defence.
rogerbentham at 04:43 AM JST - 11th May

the taliban does it all - it's their fault. besides being number one as japan knows well, america knows what the taliban is.
USARonin at 05:38 PM JST - 12th May

OK... OK...

Pick a side. Everyone who thinks the Alliess are the bad guys stand to my left. Everyone who thinks the Taliban are the bad guys stand to my right.

Holey smokes. I can't believe all the lefties and socialists who believe the Allies are the bad guys. Totally unpredictable. Who woulda guessed?