July 26 2010
Afghan Officials Report 52 Civilians Dead in NATO Strike
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and TAIMOOR SHAH
NY Times
KABUL, Afghanistan -- In what could be the one of the most serious cases of civilian casualties in nine years of war, top Afghan officials said Monday that 52 people had been killed in a remote region of Helmand Province on Friday when a rocket slammed into a house where women and children had gathered to take shelter from fighting between NATO troops and militants.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as “both morally and humanly unacceptable.”
Speaking by telephone from Rigi, the stricken village, a witness, Mohammed Usman, 57, said he helped pull the mangled bodies of 17 children and 7 women from the rubble.
“They have ruined us, and they have killed small children and innocent women,” he said. “God will never forgive them.” The Karzai government said that its information came from its own intelligence service. American military officials cast the account as premature but did not deny it.
“Any speculation at this point of alleged civilian casualties in Rigi village is completely unfounded,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of communications for the American and NATO military coalition. “We are conducting a thorough joint investigation with our Afghan partners and will report any and all findings when known.”
Another military spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, added, “If the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has something that has been determined by means other than the joint Afghan/NATO investigation, we are unaware of it.”
If the Afghan government’s account is accurate, it would mean the largest number of civilians killed in any attack since September 2009, when more than 100 people died after a bomb strike called in by the German military in Kunduz Province.
The controversy could pose an extraordinary challenge to the new American and NATO commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, just three weeks after taking charge. Civilian casualties have enraged local populations, undermined counterinsurgency efforts in some areas and caused retaliatory attacks by infuriated relatives of the dead, leading to more American deaths.
It also comes after the publication of a trove of tens of thousands of secret military field reports that underscore the prevalence of civilian casualties in the conflict.
Residents in Helmand recounted that on Friday, an American military force in Sangin District, which in recent years has been one of the deadliest areas for NATO troops, engaged Taliban militants in an intense firefight in two remote villages. Taliban fighters warned residents to leave, and many fled to Rigi, which has only a half-dozen homes.
Women and children from about eight families were packed into one home, while many of the men took shelter in the forest around the village. About 4:30 p.m. they heard the first of two powerful explosions that blanketed Rigi in smoke as military aircraft flew overhead, the villagers said.
“They targeted an area which we believed was safer, but in one hit they killed over 50 people,” said Abdul Samad Jan, 25. “Most of them were children and women, and I have lost my relatives as well.”
Accounts of the attack come as General Petraeus and his aides weigh whether to changes the rules that govern how much force troops can use to defend themselves and to attack suspected enemy targets.
Last summer, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ordered troops to use more caution to avoid harming civilians, an effort to win more popular Afghan support. But his directive eventually drew strong criticism from many troops and families of service members who believed soldiers and Marines did not have what they needed to protect themselves.
Senior military commanders have said they believe no troops have been denied close air support, and the United Nations and other groups have praised the McChrystal rules for reducing deaths from airstrikes and night raids. Now, General Petraeus, who took command after General McChrystal was fired for derogatory remarks he and members of his staff made about Obama administration officials to a magazine reporter, is deciding whether to alter the rules.
Some military officials say they do not expect substantial changes, which, if true, could further erode support for the war in the United States — even as Karzai officials continue to press the American-led NATO coalition to do more to reduce civilian deaths.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.
Source: NY Times
NY Times
KABUL, Afghanistan -- In what could be the one of the most serious cases of civilian casualties in nine years of war, top Afghan officials said Monday that 52 people had been killed in a remote region of Helmand Province on Friday when a rocket slammed into a house where women and children had gathered to take shelter from fighting between NATO troops and militants.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as “both morally and humanly unacceptable.”
Speaking by telephone from Rigi, the stricken village, a witness, Mohammed Usman, 57, said he helped pull the mangled bodies of 17 children and 7 women from the rubble.
“They have ruined us, and they have killed small children and innocent women,” he said. “God will never forgive them.” The Karzai government said that its information came from its own intelligence service. American military officials cast the account as premature but did not deny it.
“Any speculation at this point of alleged civilian casualties in Rigi village is completely unfounded,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of communications for the American and NATO military coalition. “We are conducting a thorough joint investigation with our Afghan partners and will report any and all findings when known.”
Another military spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, added, “If the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has something that has been determined by means other than the joint Afghan/NATO investigation, we are unaware of it.”
If the Afghan government’s account is accurate, it would mean the largest number of civilians killed in any attack since September 2009, when more than 100 people died after a bomb strike called in by the German military in Kunduz Province.
The controversy could pose an extraordinary challenge to the new American and NATO commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, just three weeks after taking charge. Civilian casualties have enraged local populations, undermined counterinsurgency efforts in some areas and caused retaliatory attacks by infuriated relatives of the dead, leading to more American deaths.
It also comes after the publication of a trove of tens of thousands of secret military field reports that underscore the prevalence of civilian casualties in the conflict.
Residents in Helmand recounted that on Friday, an American military force in Sangin District, which in recent years has been one of the deadliest areas for NATO troops, engaged Taliban militants in an intense firefight in two remote villages. Taliban fighters warned residents to leave, and many fled to Rigi, which has only a half-dozen homes.
Women and children from about eight families were packed into one home, while many of the men took shelter in the forest around the village. About 4:30 p.m. they heard the first of two powerful explosions that blanketed Rigi in smoke as military aircraft flew overhead, the villagers said.
“They targeted an area which we believed was safer, but in one hit they killed over 50 people,” said Abdul Samad Jan, 25. “Most of them were children and women, and I have lost my relatives as well.”
Accounts of the attack come as General Petraeus and his aides weigh whether to changes the rules that govern how much force troops can use to defend themselves and to attack suspected enemy targets.
Last summer, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ordered troops to use more caution to avoid harming civilians, an effort to win more popular Afghan support. But his directive eventually drew strong criticism from many troops and families of service members who believed soldiers and Marines did not have what they needed to protect themselves.
Senior military commanders have said they believe no troops have been denied close air support, and the United Nations and other groups have praised the McChrystal rules for reducing deaths from airstrikes and night raids. Now, General Petraeus, who took command after General McChrystal was fired for derogatory remarks he and members of his staff made about Obama administration officials to a magazine reporter, is deciding whether to alter the rules.
Some military officials say they do not expect substantial changes, which, if true, could further erode support for the war in the United States — even as Karzai officials continue to press the American-led NATO coalition to do more to reduce civilian deaths.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.
Source: NY Times
