Nine Afghan civilians killed in NATO (air)strike: deputy governor

[maddezmom]

KABUL (AFP) - Nine Afghan civilians were killed when NATO-led air and artillery fire hit their home during a battle with militants, a deputy provincial governor said Monday.

Five women and two children were among the dead in the incident overnight in Kapisa province, north of Kabul, deputy governor Sayed Daud Hashimi told AFP.

A NATO provincial reconstruction team base came under attack in the province "and they responded with artillery and an airstrike, killing nine Afghan civilians," Hashimi said.

The interior ministry confirmed that there was an incident in Kapisa's Nijrab district involving "some casualties" but said it was trying to find out more details.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070305/ts_afp/afghanistannatounrestcivilian_070305083018

[maddezmom]

1. US Military investigating 2 seperate incidents

U.S. military investigating reports of Afghan civilians killed by its forces
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military Monday is investigating two incidents in Afghanistan involving its forces that may have unintentionally led to the deaths of several civilians.

Afghan officials, quoted by wires services, said a Sunday night airstrike in the town of Nijrab, north of Kabul, killed a family of nine, including several young children.

A coalition spokesman told CNN the airstrike, carried out by U.S. forces, targeted insurgents who fired rockets on a U.S. military base in Nijrab, located in Kapisa province.

According to the spokesman, U.S. soldiers observed armed combatants -- believed to have fired on the military base -- take cover in a compound and called in an airstrike on the building, the spokesman said.

The U.S. military dropped two 1,000-pound bombs on the building, killing nine people, he said.


more: http://us.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/05/monday/index.html

[High Plains]

2. Winning hearts and minds, eh?

This is two incidents in two days where US/NATO forces killed Afghan civilians for no apparent good reason. All those old stories about Afghanistan being the graveyard of foreign invaders are beginning to sound like they're coming true again. The Taliban is vowing a major offensive this spring...

[Breeze54]

3. Coalition air strike hits Afghan house, killing family of 9, official says

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1e850bde-d80d-46aa-8ccb-8764e1ec65f5&k=82642

snip-->

Both times, the U.S military blamed militants for putting innocent lives in danger.

But Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that the president needs to prop up his weak government - increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban.

In the latest incident, militants late Sunday fired on a U.S. base in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, prompting the air strike on Jabar village.

The strike hit a civilian home, killing four women, four children between the ages of six months and five years, and one elderly man, said Gulam Nabi, a relative of the victims.

Sayad Mohammad Dawood Hashimmi, Kapisa deputy governor, confirmed the nine deaths, as did an Interior Ministry official in Kabul, who asked not to be identified because the ministry had not yet prepared a statement.

A U.S. military statement said two men with automatic rifles were seen heading into a compound of five homes after a rocket attack on a U.S. base in the area.

"These men knowingly endangered civilians by retreating into a populated area while conducting attacks against coalition forces," said Lt.-Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman. "We observed the men entering a compound and that compound was targeted and hit by an air strike."

The statement said coalition forces "dropped two 2,000-pound bombs" on the compound after a rocket was fired at the base and armed militants were seen moving into the compound. The U.S. base in Kapisa is about 80 kilometres northeast of Kabul, the capital.

Among those killed were Gulam Nabi's parents, his sister, his nephew, and four of the extended family's youngest children.

The news of the air strike came a day after wounded Afghans and witnesses said U.S. marines fired on civilians after a suicide bombing in eastern Nangahar province. The violence that left up to 10 Afghans dead and 34 wounded, sparked angry anti-U.S. demonstrations by hundreds of Afghan men.

A U.S. official called The Associated Press on Monday to say that military authorities believe Sunday's suicide bombing was a "clearly planned, orchestrated attack" that included enemy fire on the convoy and a planned demonstration.

The official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said authorities believe criminal elements orchestrated the attack and demonstration and that it was related to ongoing Afghan efforts to eradicate the region's profitable opium poppy crop.

[rodeodance]

4. Coalition airstrike kills Afghan family (3rd incident in 2 days)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070305/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence;_ylt=Ah_hv7psnwsL6q95GijXMHLMWM0F

Coalition airstrike kills Afghan family

By AMIR SHAH and RAHIM FAIEZ,
Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

JABAR, Afghanistan - A coalition airstrike destroyed a mud-brick home after a rocket attack on a U.S. base, killing nine people from four generations of an Afghan family including a 6-month-old, officials and relatives said Monday — one of the latest in a string of civilian deaths that threaten to undermine the government.


It was the third report in two days of U.S. forces killing civilians. The airstrike took place late Sunday in Kapisa province north of the capital, some 12 hours after U.S. Marines opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians following a suicide bombing in eastern Nangahar province.

In the other incident, an American convoy in the southern city of Kandahar — where suicide attacks have become commonplace over the past year — opened fire Monday on a vehicle that drove too close, killing the driver, said Noor Ahmad, a Kandahar police officer who said he witnessed the shooting. A
NATO spokesman said he did not have any information.

Up to 10 Afghans died in the aftermath of the Nangahar suicide attack, which wounded a U.S. Marine. President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, "which caused the American forces to fire on civilians," and a statement said relatives of the dead wanted the "perpetrators" brought to justice................

[WePurrsevere]

5. Thank you for posting this...

there's so much to absorb in this. :(