Afghan govt wants foreign 'killers of civilians' handed over

[bigtree]

Thursday, December 31, 2009

KABUL — The Afghan government demanded Thursday to take into its custody foreigners wanted over the alleged killing of 10 civilians, sharply escalating a war of words with its powerful Western military backers.

The National Security Council (NSC) made the demand at talks chaired by President Hamid Karzai, who has been vocal in condemning international forces he believes are responsible for the incident last Saturday in the eastern flashpoint of Kunar.

"The meeting of the National Security Council demanded that those responsible for the deaths of those innocent youths must be handed over to the Afghan government," a statement from Karzai's office said.

NATO forces have disputed the results of the Afghan probe, saying the foreigners involved were non-military Americans on a sanctioned operation who fired in self-defence after being shot at by villagers.

But Afghanistan's powerful NSC accepted the findings of the investigation, saying foreigners entered a house and shot the 10 people, who were unarmed and posed no threat.

read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gJhEcHHops0gD6qyRhMMvKL4yZAA


December 31, 2009
KABUL (Reuters) -- The United Nations said today that eight Afghan students died in a controversial nighttime raid last weekend, which NATO-led forces say only targeted insurgents but Afghan officials say killed 10 civilians.

Kai Eide, UN special representative in Afghanistan, said in a statement that preliminary investigations into the incident showed there were militants in the area at the time of the attack, but eight of the dead were teenaged civilians enrolled in local schools.

"The United Nations remains concerned about nighttime raids given that they often result in lethal outcomes for civilians, the dangerous confusion that frequently arises when a family compound is invaded, and the frustration of local authorities when operations are not coordinated with them," Eide said.

read more: http://www.rferl.org/content/UN_Says_Eight_Afghans_Killed_In_Weekend_Raid_Were_Students/1918595.html


related:

Attack Puts Afghan Leader and NATO at Odds - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/world/asia/29afghan.html

AFP: Afghan civilian casualties up 10%: UN
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeFu2Zg2NrPY8rQne16txWOQgj8Q

[gratuitous]

1. Isn't that cute?

The Afghans think they're a sovereign nation.

[bigtree]

2. heh

yeah, it's cute

[peacebird]

3. Sounds reasonable to me. Killing civilians is bad. Why don't we bring all our folks home?

That way we wouldn't accidentally kill civilians, or anyone else for that matter.
:shrug: