UN says Afghans slain in troop raid were students

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_un

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 31, 1:26 pm ET

KABUL – The United Nations said Thursday that a weekend raid by foreign troops in a tense eastern Afghan province killed eight local students and warned against nighttime actions by coalition forces because they often cause civilian deaths.

The Afghan government said its investigation has established that all 10 people killed Sunday in a remote village in Kunar province were civilians. Its officials said that eight of those killed were schoolchildren aged 12-14.

NATO officials initially said all the dead were insurgents, but later backed off by saying there was no evidence to substantiate the claims that they were civilians. They requested a joint Afghan-NATO investigation to reach an "impartial and accurate determination" of what happened.

UN special representative in Afghanistan Kai Eide said in a statement that the preliminary UN investigation showed "strong indication" that there were insurgents in the area at the time of the attack.

But, he added, "based on our initial investigation, eight of those killed were students enrolled in local schools."

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[stray cat]

2. Supposedly the students all had beards - at least that was the article in NYtimes

[SoCalDem]

3. Like out here when there's a gang shooting.. they are always portrayed as

"a good boy"
"turning his life around"
"a good student"
" a quiet young man"
"an altar boy"

but no one ever has much to say about the tattoed necks and all the family photos with gang signs in every one of them..

[malaise]

4. Check this link that I posted earlier

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115054§ionid=351020403
<snip>
Afghanistan has demanded that foreign troops responsible for the killing of 10 civilians be handed over to the custody of the government.

The demand has been made via the National Security Council chaired by President Hamid Karzai on Thursday.

The statement comes just days after the victims, including eight school-children, were dragged out of their homes in the Kunar province and shot to death over the weekend.

NATO forces have disputed the results of the Afghan probe. The US military insists that the victims were armed militants.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7367211
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Get out Obama - for your own sake. End those crazy Bush wars.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. Oh good. We do the Taliban's job for them.

[msongs]

6. No Child Left Behind goes international nt

[BunkerHill24]

7. LOL

No laughing matter, but you nailed it. DUzy :applause:

[G_j]

8. NATO officials lying also

that's reassuring