Afghanistan: Coalition Killed 14 Workers

Road Construction Company Blames Taliban; Says U.S. Given "Wrong Information" On Targets

(AP)  The U.S.-led coalition killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan because of mistaken intelligence reports, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The coalition said it was looking into the incident in Nuristan province, but did not immediately comment. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it has conducted airstrikes against Taliban fighters in the area, but did not say when.

"ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab (districts), and in those places we used airstrikes against (Taliban)," ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco told a news conference. "The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture."

The engineers and laborers had been contracted by the U.S. military to build a road in mountainous Nuristan, and were sleeping in two tents in Nurgaram when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

"All of our poor workers have been killed," Jalili said. "I don't think the Americans were targeting our people. I'm sure it's the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information."

The report could not be independently verified because the area is difficult to reach.

The company has requested that the U.S. military investigate its information, Jalili said.

Nuristan Governor Tamim Nuristani said the coalition conducted air strikes after receiving reports that "the enemy" was in the area, and hit the road construction workers as they were sleeping. Afghan officials often refer to the Taliban and other militants as "the enemy."

Jalili said the workers were from four nearby provinces, and that all but three of the bodies had been returned to their homes.

Earlier this year, foreign troops came under scathing criticism for conducting airstrikes based on poor intelligence and causing a number of civilian casualties.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week in Kabul that the alliance has "worked hard" to change its procedures to avoid civilian deaths, following U.N. criticism that the foreign troops were behind an alarming number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pleaded repeatedly with NATO and coalition troops to cooperate closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian deaths, and the number of such incidents dropped significantly in the past few months.

This has been the deadliest year yet since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with more than 6,000 people killed in militant attacks and military operations, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.

Amerifa, an 11-year-old company, received the contract to build 135 miles of road for the U.S. military last year, Jalili said.

[logicanada]

I just cannot believe that U.S. intelligence were given faulty intel again.
I hope they don''t target any Canadian troops again...by mistake.

[prinzowhales]

The ''lobsterbacks'' of King George didn''t like the lads in homespun shooting at them and disappearing into the woods...the imperial stormtroopers of Emporer George don''t like it when their unwanted occupation is resisted by Afghanis who are fighting as they have always fought. Emporer George and his associates say "The dope must flow!" That is one of the main reasons that we are in Afghanistan..."Support your international drug dealers!!" Maybe James Garner could be convinced to star in a movie!

[prinzowhales]

Posted by notblue at 01:26 PM : Nov 28, 2007
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And which of those things you list did the fourteen innocent workers do?

[starleo146]

They better have a surge in Afghanistan and finish the job, there was a report the Taliban has 54% of the country what is Bush waiting for, with Pakistan in an uproar he better have enough there.

[notblue]

Prinzoterrorist, brutality, indifference, murderous callousness, barbarism, refusal to adhere to international rules of engagement as in dressing like and hiding amongst civilian nocombatants, purposeful targeting of innocent civilians, the list of attrocities goes on and on, these are the tactics of your beloved brothers in Jihad. When you point fingers it''s best to look in the mirror first.

[prinzowhales]

Here is the link from my last post:

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=7583

Giving this woman British citizenship--and get this...her husband became an Oxford don!...would be like having the family of Dr. Mengele become Americans and join the Harvard faculty (though they would be right at home with Professor Torture--Alan Dershowitz.)

[samsel3]

The real deal in Afghanistan is the Caspian Sea oil pipline. The region holds a third of the worlds oil.The pipline will go through Afghanistan,Pakistan,India and on to Nepal to supply huge southeast asian markets.Going through Iran would be cheaper & thats why the administration are talking regime change under the guise of nuclear proliferation. It''s enough to make you sick...

[prinzowhales]

This is yet another example of the Coalition''s brutality and indifference clothed in the kind of mind-numbing incompetence that US intel has exhibited since the Stupid Peoples'' War was launched in Afghanistan.

They don''t vet the intelligence...they simply pick out what they consider to be the best reports and authorize the strikes...They had no more idea of who was in those tents than Hiram''s goat. And, when have they found the Taliban in tents in the open?

The murderous callousness of the Anglo-American leadership goes well beyond this. Here is a link to an article detailing how the Brits welcomed with open arms the murderous Stalinist wh*re "Warsaw Delores" who orchestrated the judicial murder of a Polish Resistance leader and protects her to this day! This is part and parcel of the war against national culture and society exhibited by the Soviets at Katyn Woods where thousands of Polish officers were murdered by the vile creatures...This is seen in the American war against Mesopotamian civilization in particular and Islamic civilization in general...to replace all culture with the garbage that spews from New York, Hollywood and their satellites abroad.