NATO, Afghan officials probe report of civilian deaths

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: CNN.COM

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government are investigating reports that as many as 130 people, including women and children, were killed Friday in an attack by coalition forces in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.

The allegation came from Dur Ali Shah, the mayor of Gereshk, who said he was appointed by the province to investigate the attack near the village of Hyderabad.

"The people coming from the area are saying that 120 to 130 people have been killed, including women and children," Shah said. "We don't know how many of those are armed people and how many are civilians."

<snip>

This report comes one week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused NATO of "the disproportionate use of force" following an incident in which he said dozens of Afghan civilians were killed in the town of Gereshk, which is near Hyderabad.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/30/afghan.attack/index.html

---

It seems the question 'Why do they hate us?' gets answered just about every day.

[struggle4progress]

1. 'Up to 80 civilians dead' after US air strikes in Afghanistan

Witnesses claim a village in British-run Helmand was bombed for three hours after the Taliban attempted to ambush a US-Afghan army convoy

Jason Burke
Sunday July 1, 2007
The Observer

Air strikes in the British-controlled Helmand province of Afghanistan may have killed civilians, coalition troops said yesterday as local people claimed that between 50 and 80 people, many of them women and children, had died.

In the latest of a series of attacks causing significant civilian casualties in recent weeks, more than 200 were killed by coalition troops in Afghanistan in June, far more than are believed to have been killed by Taliban militants.

The bombardment, which witnesses said lasted up to three hours, in the Gereshk district late on Friday followed an attempted ambush by the Taliban on a joint US-Afghan military convoy. According to Mohammad Hussein, the provincial police chief, the militants fled into a nearby village for cover. Planes then targeted the village of Hyderabad. Mohammad Khan, a resident of the village, said seven members of his family, including his brother and five of his brother's children, were killed.

'I brought three of my wounded relatives to Gereshk hospital for treatment,' he told the Associated Press news agency by phone. The villagers were yesterday burying a 'lot of dead bodies', Khan said. ~snip~

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2115846,00.html

[Rose Siding]

2. k&r

[Eugene]

3. Afghans, foreign forces at odds over casualties

Source: Reuters

Afghans, foreign forces at odds over casualties
01 Jul 2007 13:59:23 GMT
Source: Reuters

By David Fox

KABUL, July 1 (Reuters) - Afghan and foreign officials were
at odds on Sunday over the civilian death toll from a U.S.-led
airstrike that a local investigating team said killed more than
100 people.

Dor Mohammed Ali Shah, mayor of Grishnik in southern Helmand
province, said Saturday's pre-dawn airstrike on the small village
of Hyderabad killed 45 civilians and 62 Taliban fighters.

But a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security and
Assistance Force (ISAF) disputed the figures and said casualties
were "significantly" lower. ISAF rarely discloses its own tally
of civilian deaths.

The rising toll that fighting between a resurgent Taliban and
foreign troops in Afghanistan is taking on civilians is proving
a major irritant for Afghanistan's Western-backed President
Hamid Karzai.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01695976.htm

[slipslidingaway]

4. K&R n/t

[Eugene]

5. NATO regrets deaths but says Taliban "behead, burn"

Source: Reuters

NATO regrets deaths but says Taliban "behead, burn"
03 Jul 2007 12:06:50 GMT
Source: Reuters

ROME, July 3 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap
de Hoop Scheffer vowed on Tuesday to investigate recent
civilian deaths in Afghanistan, but contrasted NATO's
record with a Taliban who "behead people, burn schools,
kill women and children".

The rising toll on civilians is putting pressure on Afghan
President Hamid Karzai -- who like the NATO chief was in
Rome for a conference on the rule of law in his country --
in the bloodiest period since the Taliban government fell
in 2001.

In the latest major incident this weekend, Afghan officials
said 45 civilians were killed by an air strike in the country's
south, but the NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) said the toll from the pre-dawn raid was lower.

"Our opponent mixes and mingles with innocent civilians,
they are in a different moral category," De Hoop Scheffer
said after meeting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi,
whose country contributes to the nearly 50,000-strong
international mission.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03798660.htm