KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2008
Videos Show Afghan Children Casualties
U.S. Reopens Investigation Into Attack On Village; U.N., Afghanis Say 90 Civilians Killed
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A destroyed house in Azizabad, August 23, 2008, a day after the Afghani village was attacked by U.S. forces. Military officials said 35 militants and seven civilians died, but recently-released video supports U.N. and Afghan claims that 90 civilians, including many children, were killed. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)
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The sounds of wailing women mixed with the voices of men shouting inside a white-walled mosque in the western village of Azizabad, where an Afghan government commission and U.N. report said some 90 civilians — including 60 children and 15 women — were killed.
The two grainy videos, apparently taken by cell phones, showed bodies lying side-by-side on the mosque floor, covered by floral-patterned blankets and black-and-white checkered shawls. One young boy lay curled in a fetal position; others looked as though they were asleep. One child had half its head blown off.
Turbaned men walked around, gently lifting the blankets covering the faces of the dead. At least two elderly men were among the dead. There appeared to be several dozen bodies lying on the mosque floor, though a precise count was difficult because of the poor quality of the images.
The videos do not provide proof that 60 children died in the operation, but the images do appear to contradict a U.S. military investigation that found only seven civilians were killed in Azizabad, along with up to 35 militants.
The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday that Azizabad had 42 freshly dug graves, including 13 so small they could hold only children.
The U.S. said Sunday it would reopen the investigation because of emerging new evidence. On Monday, a Pentagon spokesman said new "imagery evidence" came to the attention over the weekend of Gen. David D. McKiernan, the American commander of the NATO-led force here.
"There is some evidence that suggests that the evidence that the U.S. military used in ... its investigation may not have been complete," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
He said a general to be sent to Afghanistan by U.S. Central Command will review the initial investigation. But it is also possible there will be a new inquiry into the raid in Azizabad — this time conducted by Central Command, said Lt. Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the command in Tampa, Fla.
The Afghan government has agreed to a joint U.S.-U.N.-Afghan investigation, said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry. It's not clear when or how that will be conducted.
In the videos, several dozen bodies covered by blankets were lined up in two rows, some with their feet protruding. Veiled Afghan women were seen shrieking in grief, alongside a young boy who squatted and rocked back and forth, sobbing beside one of the bodies.
One video showed three young children wrapped in white shrouds. A fourth child had gruesome head wounds, while a fifth appeared to be a girl lying on her back, her head resting on a red blanket.
It was impossible to verify conclusively that the videos showed the aftermath of the Azizabad attack, but the contents appeared to back claims by Afghan and U.N. officials that the U.S. operation killed far more civilians than the military has acknowledged.
U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos carried out the operation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly warned the U.S. and NATO that it must stop killing civilians in its bombing runs, saying such deaths undermine his government and the international mission. But the Azizabad incident could finally push Karzai to take action.
Karzai says the Azizabad bombings have brought relations between the Afghan government and the U.S. to one of its lowest points since the ouster of the Islamic militia from power in 2001.
Shortly after the Azizabad attack, he ordered a review of whether the U.S. and NATO should be allowed to use airstrikes or carry out raids in villages. He also called for an updated "status of force" agreement between the Afghan government and foreign militaries. That review has not yet been completed.
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 a rival, Nader Tawakal.
The U.S. investigative report released last week said American and Afghan forces took fire from militants while approaching Azizabad and that "justified use of well-aimed small-arms fire and close air support to defend the combined force."
The report said investigators discovered evidence the militants planned to attack a nearby coalition base. This included weapons, explosives, intelligence materials and an access badge to the base, as well as photographs from inside and outside the base, the U.S. report said.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 43 CommentsPosted by OneWorldUSA at 04:57 AM : Sep 09, 2008
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to be pro-active instead of reactive to an islamic threat...a threat that comes from a few elite mullahs and clerics and nutjobs who poisons the minds of the masses to HATE YOU..enough to strap bombs on themselves and use it on civilian targets without any thought..
given the change, no matter how deep you orally copulate these terrroists, they would not hesitate to kill you..THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE TRAINED TO THINK..
now do you know WHY you oppose that??
Posted by txpatriot4us at 05:28 PM : Sep 09, 2008
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how come in really doubtful that you care about anybody from across the globle let alone to care about our military citizenry..
for you guys they are nothing more than just babykillers and a target to spit at..
I am sure that we can scoop up a lot more ''pictures'' and ''videos'' of other atrocities that really brought us this problem..
how many decades had the taliban been ruling afghanistan with draconian islamic rules??? where scores of women children and men were not just killed but tortured because of a simple word they said or whom they saw a few hours ago or how short thier skirt was..or whom they were seen walking with..JUST A REMINDER
THE LIBERAL MEDIA IS WORKING FEVERSHLY to remove thse ''pictures'' and ''videos''..ever wonder why?? because they care??? maybe it$ $omething el$se..
Posted by gunfighter51 at 07:50 PM : Sep 08, 2008
What you say could be possible I suppose.
Any chance at all that you could ever possibly imagine that American forces did indeed wipe out these people and that the pentagon folks are the ones lying?
Considering the lies we were told about Pat Tillman,
Jessica Lynch, Haditha, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo by the pentagon, which all later proved untrue, its hard to believe anyone would believe anything the pentagon has to say about anything.
What is going on, and where`s the UN and all the other humanitarian org.? Imagine Russian war ship coming to havana for Humanitarian assistance? What would Bush/Cheney Mcsame and the republican would say?
It`s unhuman and immoral.
Remember all those Army, Navy, Air Force commercials you''re seeing on TV now about all the great opportunities that await your children in the US military and all the great hi-tech toys they''ll get to play with? Just like the video games they played at home, right?
They''re training your children to be remote control assassins with these unmanned drones firing missiles at anyone they''re told to fire them at. Bombs and missiles are a very messy, grotesque and imprecise way to kill people.
And most of the dead end up being civilians. The US military initially says they''re terrorists. Then video from the scene gets out disputing the facts and neutral UN officials who investigate find out they were mostly civilians.
Keep that in mind next time you see a military commercial on TV. That video game red button or trigger they pull could kill dozens of innocent people.
Pat Tillman?
Jessica Lynch?
Haditha?
Abu Ghraib?
Guantanamo?
McCain says he abhors war and I''m sure he does the part he sees, but he also sings Bomb, Bomb, Iran and talks of hundred year occupations! Some things you see and some thing you don''t but you should be able to imagine I imagine. We need to learn not to put our trust in war. We and most other countries need to remove that from our currency. If we didn''t we might not resort to it so easily, we might even shudder at the thought of a frivolous war. usually it takes a war on ones own soil before it starts to sink in and you never know, someday it may happen and we may even be hastening that day by our actions. It is worth thinking about.
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