MacKay, NATO repeat calls for Afghanistan reinforcements

[CHIMO]

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has repeated his call for more countries to send troops to Afghanistan's volatile southern region, comments echoed by the secretary general of NATO.

"We are calling in a … forceful way for other countries to come and participate in what is a very difficult part of this mission," MacKay said Thursday after an address to the Canadian International Council.

We sense that there are other countries willing to come and to participate."

Canadian, British, American and Dutch troops make up the bulk of the NATO-led force in the dangerous Kandahar region, where Taliban fighters have re-established strongholds.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/10/19/mackay-afghanistan.html

NATO Bombing Kills 9 Afghan Civilians
At least nine civilians have been killed in a NATO bombing of a southern village in Afghanistan. The attacked occurred early Wednesday morning while the victims were asleep in their homes.

Eyewitness Wakeel Ahmad: "Around 2:00 am a plane bombed our houses here, you see that it is a residential area. 16 people were killed -- women, children and men and another 21 people wounded. After the bomb the foreign soldiers came here and shot dead two wounded residents here. We don't know why."
NATO says it was aiming at Taliban hideouts.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/19/1346245