U.S. Disputes Afghan Raid Death Toll

Military: Probe Shows 30-35 Taliban Killed, 7 Civilians; U.N., Afghans Say 90 Civilians

(AP)  A U.S. investigation released Tuesday disputed a U.N. report that found "credible evidence" that up to 90 civilians died in a raid on a western Afghan village, saying an after-battle assessment found most of the victims were Taliban fighters.

The military probe found that up to seven civilians and between 30 and 35 Taliban militants were killed in an operation in Azizabad village in the early morning hours of Aug. 22. The U.N. backed a finding by the Afghan government that all the victims were civilians.

The competing claims illustrate the difficulty of determining how many civilians fall victim in a war fought in distant mountains and densely populated villages.

U.S. officials say they face significant challenges both in identifying Taliban fighters, who mix easily with the general population, and because of incentives to falsely claim civilian casualties.

"The enemy knowingly hides behind women and children, they dress in burqas," Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser told The Associated Press on Monday. "The enemy makes it extraordinarily difficult to avoid civilian casualties. We don't even know it (civilian casualties occurred) until the fighting is over."

In addition, the U.S. has long said that Taliban militants pressure Afghan villagers to falsely claim civilian casualties, information warfare that does serious damage to the reputations of the U.S., NATO and the Western-backed Afghan government.

In Azizabad and other small villages where civilians are reported killed in combat, the Afghan government and international militaries pay about $2,000 for each person killed, giving villagers incentive to file false claims. U.S. officials acknowledge that payments have been made for people who never existed.

A senior Afghan official close to the Azizabad case said Tuesday he was sure 90 civilians had not perished in the fighting, but he said the Afghan government had already paid claims to villagers. He spoke on condition he was not identified contradicting the official government report.

The official noted that President Hamid Karzai — whose government was quick to publicize the civilian casualties report — is running for president next year, and has reason to be seen standing up to international powers while taking the side of Afghan villagers.

No conclusive evidence has surfaced in the Azizabad case to confirm the death toll.

The U.N. and Afghan reports relied primarily on the word of villagers.

Nek Mohammad Ishaq, a provincial council member in Herat and a member of the Afghan commission, has said photographs and video taken of the victims are with Afghanistan's secretive intelligence service, but no such images have emerged. The U.S. did not make public any video feeds from military aircraft or the forces on the ground.

A member of Afghanistan's investigating commission, Mohammad Iqbal Safi, a member of parliament, said the U.S. report would not change the finding of the Afghans. He said many Afghan households have weapons, but that doesn't make them militants.

"Again I want to emphasize that all the victims were civilians, and there were no Taliban among the dead," Safi said. "All the men killed in the operation were the employees of the private security company working at the coalition base. So how could they be Taliban?"

Ahmad Nader Nadery, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, has said that a villager named Reza, whose compound bore the brunt of the attack, had a private security company that worked for the U.S. military at nearby Shindand airport.

Villagers and officials have said the operation was based on faulty information provided by a rival of Reza. Aziz Ahmad Nadem, a member of parliament from Herat, has told the AP that the rival is now being protected by the U.S. military.

Afghan officials say U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos raided the village while hundreds of people were gathered in a large compound for a memorial service honoring a tribal leader, Timor Shah, who was killed eight months ago by the rival, Nader Tawakal. Reza, who was killed in the Aug. 22 operation, is Shah's brother.

The U.S. report released Tuesday said American and Afghan forces took fire from militants while approaching Azizabad, incoming fire that "justified use of well-aimed small-arms fire and close air support to defend the combined force."

The U.S. said its range in casualty numbers was determined by observation of enemy movements during the engagement and on-site observations immediately after the battle. It said a known Taliban commander, Mullah Siddiq, and five to seven civilians were among the dead.

The report said that investigators discovered evidence that the militants planned to attack a nearby coalition base. Evidence collected included weapons, explosives, intelligence materials and an access badge to the base, as well as photographs from inside and outside the base, the report said.

The report said that the investigating officer watched video of the engagement and looked at topographic photo comparisons of the area before and after, including burial sites.

The U.S. report left open the possibility that evidence could emerge to prove that more people died in Azizabad. "No other evidence that may have been collected by other organizations was provided to the U.S. Investigating Officer and therefore could not be considered in the findings," the report said.

Still, U.S. and NATO forces have killed large numbers of civilians in airstrikes.

In early July, a U.S. airstrike hit a group of Afghans walking to a wedding, killing 47 civilians, an Afghan government commission found. The U.S. at first denied hitting any civilians, then later said it regretted any loss of civilian life. The U.S. never publicly admitted its aircraft killed civilians.

The Taliban is no innocent party in the fight. Militants have killed more civilians this year than any U.S. or NATO military action.

An Associated Press tally of death tolls from Western and Afghan officials shows that Taliban attacks like suicide bombings have killed 540 civilians this year. U.S. and NATO military action have killed around 160, excluding Azizabad. Suicide bombs killed more than 100 civilians in Kandahar in February, and more than 60 this summer in an attack on the Indian Embassy.

Karzai ratcheted up pressure on Western militaries after the fighting in Azizabad by ordering a review of whether the U.S. and NATO should be allowed to use airstrikes or carry out raids in villages. Karzai also called for an updated "status of force" agreement between the Afghan government and foreign militaries.

[samsel3]

The administrations true interests are Cheney%u2019s energy policy.Condi Rice is a former board member of Chevron Oil and mouthpiece for the administrations energy policy.

Part of that policy is the The Caspian Sea pipelines which will go through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,Pakistan, to the gulf of Oman and on to India & Nepal.

The Caspian sea area holds one third of the world%u2019s oil and natural gas. South asia is their target market. This pipeline was also the reason for the Afghanistan invasion. Cheney%u2019s energy policy is the root of all these middle east wars, a federal court judge sealed all documents associated with it for the administration, and the national media are not allowed to discuss or comment on it. More troops are needed in Afghanistan to protect the contractors building the pipeline.

Iran is planning pipelines with Russia to compete with British & US companies in southeast asian markets. Iran and Russia stand in the way of US & British control of these markets. The administration doesn t care all that matters to them are their freinds in BIG OIL & GAS and their corporate stock portfolios.