Afghan officials: US missiles killed 27 civilians
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - July 6, 2008 The U.S. military blamed the claims on militant propaganda and
said its missiles only struck insurgents.
President Hamid Karzai had already ordered an investigation into
allegations that missiles from U.S. helicopters struck civilians on
Friday in eastern Afghanistan, though the Defense Ministry said
Sunday that attack on the Nuristan-Kunar border killed or wounded
20 militants.
U.S. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces
in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the two
incidents were being investigated. He noted that militants hide
among and intimidate civilians.
U.S. spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said the military has
repeatedly seen militants falsely claim civilian were killed.
"Whenever we do an airstrike the first thing they're going to
cry is 'Airstrike killed civilians' when the missile actually
struck militant extremists we were targeting in the first place,"
Perry said. "At this time we don't believe we've harmed anyone
except for the combatants."
In a statement, Karzai cited allegations by Tamim Nuristani, the
governor of Nuristan province, that 15 civilians were killed and
seven wounded in the Friday attack. During a Cabinet meeting on
Sunday, top Afghan officials prayed for any innocent lives lost, a
presidential palace statement said.
"The killing and wounding of our countrymen as the result of
airstrikes is news that always makes us sad," Karzai said.
In the second incident early Sunday, the chief government
official in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province said
villagers reported that as many as 27 people walking in a group
toward a wedding were killed in a bombing. Up to 11 other people
were wounded, Haji Amishah Gul said.
Nuristan provincial police chief spokesman Ghafor Khan said that
fighter aircraft attacked a group of militants near the village of
Kacu, but that one of the missiles went off course and hit the
wedding party. Khan said many militants were killed in the attack
as well.
Both officials relied on reports called in by telephone from
villagers. The area was too remote for officials or reporters to
reach.
Gul said the group killed included men, women and children. Six
of those wounded were taken to the provincial hospital in
Jalalabad. Lal Wazir, an Afghan who helped bring the wounded to the
hospital, said the airstrike occurred at 6:30 a.m.
"The wedding participants were on their way to the groom's
house," Wazir said outside the hospital, his tunic covered in
blood after carrying some of those wounded.
"They stopped in a narrow location for rest. The plane came and
bombed the area. There were between 80 to 90 people altogether. We
have carried six of the injured to this hospital, and more might be
coming. The exact number of casualties is not clear," he said.
A U.S.-led coalition statement said an airstrike killed several
militants in Nangarhar.
The issue of civilian casualties has caused friction between the
Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops, and has weakened the
standing of Western-backed Karzai in the eyes of the population.
Karzai has repeatedly called for better coordination between
Afghan and foreign troops in pursuing militants through populated
areas, and for international troops to cut down on civilian
casualties. Deaths of ordinary Afghans caused a huge outcry last
year, but there have been fewer accusations of such killings in
recent months.
McKiernan said NATO uses a "very judicious and strict
application of lethal force."
"Civilian casualties are very, very important in this campaign.
One is one to many," he said. "I do think we have ... the right
procedures in place to mitigate and minimize any collateral damage
to people or material."
Perry said Sunday that military reports still indicated that the
Friday airstrike by coalition helicopters in Nuristan hit two
vehicles carrying militants who had attacked a NATO base with
mortars.
Karzai suggested that Afghan civilians may have been fleeing at
the time of the strike because of a warning from the U.S.
coalition.
"Coalition forces are saying that this operation was against
armed insurgents in the area, but Gov. Nuristani is insisting that
three hours before this airstrike, people were informed by
international forces that they should leave the area because of a
possible airstrike against insurgents," Karzai said in a
statement.
Elsewhere, in the southern province of Helmand - the country's
other hotly contested region - a clash killed seven Taliban and two
police, provincial police Chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said. Five
other officers were wounded during the Saturday fight in Nawa
district, he said.
The coalition said several militants were also killed Friday
during an operation in Ghazni province.
More than 2,100 people - mostly militants - have been killed in
insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year. More than
8,000 people died in attacks last year, according to the U.N., the
most since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The number of militant attacks has been on the rise this summer
compared with the same period last year, NATO officials say.