News, June , 2007
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Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names. |
NATO Airstrikes Massacre Over 100 Afghanis, Most Civilians, Including Infants and Women
Editorial Note:
In the past, many of the casualties were Afghani civilians despite claims they were Taliban fighters.
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NATO Airstrikes, Clashes Kill 25 Afghans
By AMIR SHAH Associated Press Writer
Jun 22, 2007, 9:30 AM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) --
Taliban fighters attacked police posts in southern Afghanistan, triggering NATO airstrikes that left 25 civilians dead, including three infants and the local mullah, a senior police officer said Friday.
NATO claimed its overnight bombardment killed most of a group of 30 Taliban fighters and blamed them for the deaths of any innocents, saying they had launched "irresponsible" attacks from civilian homes.
NATO acknowledged for the first time that civilians died in another battle that began last weekend in Uruzgan province, including some possibly in airstrikes.
(The NATO-Backed) Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized the mounting civilian toll from NATO and U.S.-led military operations as "difficult for us to accept or understand."
The police posts came under fire late Thursday in Gereshk district of Helmand province, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, provincial police chief, told The Associated Press.
NATO responded by calling in airstrikes, which killed 20 suspected Taliban fighters, but also 25 civilians, including nine women, three babies and the mullah at the local mosque, Andiwal said.
Villagers loaded the victims' bodies onto tractor trailers to take them to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, to prove they were innocent victims, but police stopped them, Andiwal said.
Aid groups and other observers warn that anger at the mounting civilian toll is undermining support for the presence of foreign troops and setting back their goal of securing Karzai's Western-backed government against a Taliban comeback.
Afghan officials have said more than 100 people - including militants, civilians and police - died in the battle at Chora before NATO and Afghan forces re-established control of the area after Taliban overran three police checkpoints.
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Associated Press Writer Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.
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