Airstrikes kill scores of Afghan civilians

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Airstrikes_kill_scores_of_Afghan_civilians.html?siteSect=143&sid=8001329&cKey=1183806477000

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO and U.S. airstrikes have killed scores of Afghan civilians this week, residents and officials said on Saturday, deaths likely to deepen discontent with foreign forces and the Western-backed Afghan government.

NATO-led and U.S. forces said there are heavy ongoing clashes in Farah province in western Afghanistan and Kunar province in the east and troops in both places had called for air support.

Several residents and the head of a district council in Farah said an air attack in the Bala Boluk area killed 108 civilians.

"Women and children have been killed and 13 houses destroyed," head of Bala Boluk district council Haji Khudairam told Reuters by telephone. "In the bombing, in total, 108 civilians have been killed."

"We are asking the government to send a delegation to see for itself the civilian deaths," said Faizullah, a resident.

The governor and police chief for Farah province both declined to confirm or deny the reports of civilian deaths.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "OOooops. Guess I screwed up. Again. As usual." - Commander AWOL

"But, ummm, a, it's your fault. You are the ones who, um, a, let a Connecticut preppy cheerleader military deserter steal your pResidency and your democracy, and then lie (smirk) you into an oil-profits Crusade. So shame on you. Smirk, smirk, smirk.

"I certainly hope you didn't imagine that a Deserter, and a war-profiteering clown like Dickie "Five Military Deferments" Cheney were going to lead America's troops in a sensible, and dignified way. Smirk, smirk, smirk.:

- Commander AWOL

[bread_and_roses]

2. "US and NATO troops killed more noncombatants ...

...in the last six months than did Taliban insurgents, several tallies indicate."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/
la-fg-civilian6jul06,0,4449979.story?coll=la-home-center

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — After more than five years of increasingly intense warfare, the conflict in Afghanistan reached a grim milestone in the first half of this year: U.S. troops and their NATO allies killed more civilians than insurgents did, according to several independent tallies.

...Still, Western military leaders argue that any comparison of casualties caused by Western forces and by the Taliban is fundamentally unfair because there is a clear moral distinction to be made between accidental deaths resulting from combat operations and deliberate killings of innocents by militants.

This has been going on from the start. Remember the bombed wedding? The mother holding her headless child?

Some of us have opposed this war from the start too.

War is not the answer.

[MetaTrope]

3. This is what happens when newspapers don't rely on wire service stories

Facts get out...