Afghanistan: U.S.-Led Strikes Kill Dozens

Women And Children Among Dead, Officials Claim, After Coalition Attack In Taliban-Controlled Area

(AP)  Bombing runs by U.S.-led coalition jets killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from a fierce ground battle between Taliban militants and Afghan and international forces, two Afghan officials said Tuesday. The U.S. confirmed fighting Monday in western Afghanistan and said reports of civilian deaths were under investigation.

One Afghan official said angry and mournful villagers transported an estimated 30 bodies to a provincial capital to show officials. Other officials estimated the civilian toll to be between 70 and 100.

Civilian deaths have caused increasing friction between the Afghan government and the U.S., and President Hamid Karzai has long pleaded with U.S. officials to reduce the number of civilian casualties in their operations. Karzai meets with President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday.

Taliban fighters massed in Farah province in western Afghanistan on Monday, and fighting broke out soon after, said Belqis Roshan, a member of Farah's provincial council.

Villagers told Afghan officials that they put children, women, and elderly men in several housing compounds away from the fighting to keep them safe. But the villagers said fighter aircraft later targeted those compounds in the village of Gerani, killing a majority of those inside, Roshan and other officials said.

Abdul Basir Khan, a member of Farah's provincial council, said villagers brought bodies, including women and children, to Farah city to show the province's governor. Khan said it was difficult to count the bodies because they had had been badly mutilated, but he estimated that villagers brought around 30.

Estimates of the total number of dead varied widely, and no officials were able to travel to Bala Baluk on Tuesday because the region is so dangerous. Afghan officials, citing villager accounts, were told that the death toll ranged between 70 and well over 100. Roshan said she told villagers to take photos and video of the destruction and bodies.

The top U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Greg Julian, confirmed U.S. coalition forces participated in the battle. Julian said several wounded Afghans sought medical treatment at a military base in Farah, but officials were still investigating the reports of civilian deaths.

The issue of civilian deaths is complicated. Journalists and human rights workers can rarely visit remote battle sites to verify claims of civilian casualties. U.S. officials say Taliban militants sometimes force villagers to falsely claims that civilians have died to support its information warfare campaign.

But the villagers' claims on Tuesday were bolstered by wounded villagers who traveled to Farah's hospital for care, some of whom told stories of multiple family members being killed. And the several truckloads of bodies taken to Farah city added more weight to the villagers' claims.

Mohammad Nieem Qadderdan, the former top official in the district of Bala Baluk, said he saw dozens of bodies when he visited the village of Gerani.

"These houses that were full of children and women and elders were bombed by planes. It is very difficult to say how many were killed because nobody can count the number, it is too early," Qadderdan, who no longer holds a government position, told The Associated Press by telephone. "People are digging through rubble with shovels and hands."

Farah's provincial police chief said 25 Taliban fighters and three Afghan policemen died in the fighting.

"Afghan and foreign forces conducted an operation between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Monday). They have killed more than 25 Taliban. Most of the dead bodies are there," Abdul Ghafar said. He could not confirm reports of civilian casualties.

Qadderdan said there "are more than 100 civilians dead" and about 10 houses were destroyed. He said the wounded Afghans had been severely burned. Qadderdan's numbers were not immediately confirmed by any other official.

Qadderdan said the civilian casualties were "worse than Azizabad," a reference to an August 2008 strike in a district immediately to the north of Bala Baluk.

An Afghan government commission found that an operation by U.S. forces killed 90 civilians in Azizabad, a finding backed by the U.N. The U.S. originally said no civilians died; a high-level investigation later concluded 33 civilians were killed.

After the Azizabad killings, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, announced a directive last September meant to reduce such deaths. He ordered commanders to consider breaking away from a firefight in populated areas rather than pursue militants into villages.

[Tu_eres]

But perhaps, it is not that palatable to hear the voice of ther "other" side. After all, you would only suggest "I am right, and nobody else."
Posted by mysteriousjz

Or perhaps...you are a dumb ass

[Tu_eres]

Posted by nancy_naive

Ah yes more mindless drivel from nancynonsense.

[mysteriousjz]

If killing, bombing people in their mudhouses is "stopping" someone from "taking over" is the justification to wage wars, then I am afraid it has not worked in hundreds of years. From crusades, to recent wars, creation of Zionists state at the blood of indigenous people, all could be argued as "stopping" someone from "taking over" and in your favor. The other side would say the same thing-just the other side of the same equation. But perhaps, it is not that palatable to hear the voice of ther "other" side. After all, you would only suggest "I am right, and nobody else."

[gaye5]

mysteriousjz, I am not American and live on the other side of the world, but I do know that although America has done some stupid things that they have also been asked to send their men into many problems and wars in the world to help the situation, notice that I said that they have been asked, however in saying this I also feel that there are situations where they should not have put their noses into. Unfortunately the left media only tells us what makes people get up in arms and distorts anything it can to get sales of its papers, which by the way is now having a deverstating effect on their sales as like myself many thousands of people dont bother now to get a paper simply because people are waking up to their lies and distortions and cant be bothered wasting their money, unfortunately TV is no better... talk to those coming back from Iraq and you will hear a totally different report than you get from the media..
mysteriousjz, there are not many nations who will just sit there and allow their people to be killed without fighting back, tiny Israel and America have done this so often hoping that the situation would go away.. And yes they have done some terrible things also, but something has to stop sometime, but are you saying that we must do nothing while muslims take the world as they say that they will..

[ToolMangler1]

Whatever he needs to do to feed his "positive" image.
Even if that includes purposeful murder of Americans.
He is trying to destroy the US of A.
Posted by TheMasses03 at 11:07 AM : May 6, 2009





You are a character assassin. You seem to be incapable of debate or coherent thought. Please don't bother us if that is all you are good for..

[hamiltongrad]

how come when the same ( much less evn) happened in GAZA the whole world went bat shi# ?
Maybe the TAlibanians need better PR firms.
WHEN WILL THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE END ??

protest DISPROPORTIONATE USE OF FORCE !!!

[CLoverNYC1]

Another example of liberal doublespeak.

Trade one endless war for another. Kill innocent civilians but close Gitmo because it is wrong to 'torture' convicted terrorists but all right to kill women and children in Afghanistan.

Hypocrites!

[mysteriousjz]

The list if dead below sums up to perhaps few thousands and that has been in response to millions killed COVERTLY and overtly during the past several decades... let's start with the Zionists state creation.... thousands and thousands were massacred with the blessing of "Angels of Peace.".................. If only, the attacks described below were in response to continued brutal and biased policies against billion people of the world....... if you dont get it, then keep believing you are an angel pf peace if that makes you sleep better tonight......

[gaye5]

I now that this is not the full list, but it is a great worry, we are seen as pathetic because we did nothing.. we restrained ourselves and they took it as a sign that we were to weak.

August 1984: three Indians killed in a suburb of Tacoma, Wash.

June 14, 1985 ? Militants hijack TWA Flight 847 and murder a 23-year-old U.S. Navy diver aboard the plane.
September 1986: a doctor killed in Augusta, Ga.

Simultaneously, the murderous assault of militant Islam also took place on U.S. soil:
January 1990: an Egyptian freethinker killed in Tucson, Ariz.

November 1990: a Jewish leader killed in New York.

February 1991: an Egyptian Islamist killed in New York.

January 1993: two CIA staff killed outside agency headquarters in Langley, Va.

February 1993: Six people killed at the World Trade Center.

February 22, 1993 ? Islamic radicals detonate explosives in a parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City.
March 1994: an Orthodox Jewish boy killed on the Brooklyn Bridge.

After a let-up, the attacks then restarted: Five and 19 dead in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, ....224 dead at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 and 17 dead on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

February 1997: a Danish tourist killed on the Empire State building.

August 7, 1998 ? Al Qaeda operatives bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing more than 20.. etc etc.
October 1999: 217 passengers killed on an EgyptAir flight near New York City.

[gaye5]

mysteriousjz , anyone who likes seeing people hurt must have rocks in their heads and unfortunately we seem to be able to elect governments on both sides of the spectrum who go to war and we don?t know if the excuses that they give us, is the truth. I do know however that there have been many attacks on American sites through out the world from Muslims as if they were deliberately pushing America to go to war with them. eg. If we are to have a future we are to protect our grandchildren and if that means fight those who are trying to kill us then we must.
America's war on terrorism did not begin in September 2001. It began in November 1979.

That was shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini had seized power in Iran, riding the slogan "Death to America" - and sure enough, the attacks on Americans soon began.

In November 1979, a militant Islamic mob took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital, and held 52 Americans hostage for the next 444 days.

July 1980: an Iranian dissident killed in the Washington, D.C. area.

April 1983: 17 dead at the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

October 23, 1983 ? Terrorists crash a truck loaded with explosives into a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241.
December 1983: five dead at the U.S. embassy in Kuwait.
January 1984: the president of the American University of Beirut killed.
April 1984: 18 dead near a U.S. airbase in Spain.

September 1984: 16 dead at the U.S. embassy in Beirut (again).

December 1984: Two dead on a plane hijacked to Tehran.

[gaye5]

greybeardvet, how on earth can you say that I am a right wing from what I have said on here.. and where have I attacked liberals.... Both right and the left have gone to war, and where did I say that I was racist, all you have to do is read the last three quarters of the Quran and others of their books to see who is racist, try listening to their leaders and what they are teaching their people..
I have read parts of their holy books and I have listened to some of their leaders and yes because our leaders at this moment are asleep, I am frightened .
greybeardvet some of my American friends say that America is so big that they don?t get much outside news so go on the net and read what is happening in England, Holland, parts of America, Canada all done by the so called religion of peace, in fact there have been 15054 terrorist attacks since Sep 11th and that is not counting the number of pirate attacks on ships.. and guess who they are done by, not Buddhists', not Christians, not Catholics, not Hindus, not Confucius and not by the 40 organized religions and faith groups of the world!!! just done by Muslims. It is Muslims who are killing tens of thousands in Sudan and other places every year and you call me racist. It is so pathetic to say that a person is right winged just because they believe in wanting to keep their own safe or have a different view to you.....
I am happy to chat with you but I am not prepared to listen to belittling remarks.. discussion is far better than nastiness..

[mysteriousjz]

I have noticed that people who are happpy with people being killed and maimed, usually justify it in the name of a) security, or b) "they" deserved it because they harbored the bad guys. But they can not define what "security?" and what is "bad". It is incomprehensible that people must die so you feel "secured" - It is delusional and self-deceiving. People seeing their loved ones dead and maimed will not stop to defend themselves just as you would. Meaning, they will find one way or the other to cause harm to their enemies-and harm that is well-called for. On the other hand "if they deserved it," then I feel nothing for foreign troops being killed because they are just as bad joining armed forces bombing civilians.

Interestingly, people who condone violence and justify their slaughtering of other people actually expect to correct the world for better and really do expect that someohow those people would start loving them. Then they turn around and complain why they hate us-Do you now know why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[greybeardvet]

The killing of innocent civilians never seems to stop. Whether it's done by American troops or the Taliban is probably irrelevant to the victims.

It's interesting to note that the right-wing pukes on this page are more interested in attacking liberals than worrying about the deaths of the civilians. You can bet that racist pigs like jahpdq and gaye5 don't waste a second shedding tears over anyone. You can also bet that they get their pathetic little guns off by talking tough on the Internet; pity their friends and family.

[budmag06]

Didn't Bush get condemned for this? Now, Comrade O is responsible for the deaths of innocents. Liberals, where's the outrage now? Does Comrade O now have the liberal green light to destroy?

[jonesjep]

Come on Libs!!! Be fair. Does this not NOW make Obama a murderer?

[amer_icon]

alanrobisch, are you going to cry about it?

[alanrobisch]

I find it fascinating how many people are excusing this actions which resulted in the death of people who were innocent but are ready to lynch the people who allowed waterboarding to save our lives with no deaths or permanent injury to anyone, Hypocrisy is the disease of the day especially among liberals.

[gaye5]

Think about it folks, we care about human life so we don't want to hurt them but they don't care about human life and want to hurt us first then destroy us.. They don't kill us by just shooting us they torture first then slit our throats.

Also think about this,
As Muslims are so controlled and are likely to be stoned to death if they did something wrong (especially the women), and if there are only a few extremists and IF Muslims are truly against terrorism or suicide bombers then why don't the millions of so called good Muslims and their clerics put a stop to what we call terrorists instead of honoring them, could it be because they call them martyrs. Muslims are very controlled under their Sharia law, they cannot do a thing wrong in their society yet they cant control what we call suicide bombers who commit shadana (what we call suicide killers).
If they don?t really believe in killing the infidels and Jews then why do they not kill all the teachers and clerics who teach shadana from the time that they are babies and in their schools, and yes I have videos on teachers teaching young children to kill. Shadana is taught as an honorable thing to do against the infidels and Jews..
It wont be counted as hate speech from Muslims even though we show the words that they speak, however by us talking about these videos it would be counted as us showing hate speech and it would be us who is charged. Along with their astronomical baby growth. Why is the governments silencing the people who are trying to warn the world of this horror and from telling the world what the last three quarters of the Quran really says..

[gaye5]

The article says.... Bombing runs by U.S.-led coalition jets killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from a fierce ground battle between Taliban militants and Afghan and international forces, two Afghan officials said Tuesday.

I know that this sounds terrible, but I have got to the stage that IF this is true, that because they put their people in dangerous places so as we wont bomb their facilities, I really dont care if they are killed. However in having said that, IF these people were forced to be in these areas then I do care... but if they were willingly there then why should we care.. I am fast coming to the conclusion that as hundreds of their clerics world wide call for the extermination of not only Israel but all non Muslims then the sooner they are dead the safer we will be.. all the time that we hold off because we dont want to hurt anyone, they are having 8.5 children to every wife while we have only 1.3 to each couple.. Muslims have said that all they have to do is wait until our numbers keep dropping while their grow in massive numbers and they will take us easily..

[leeanna59]

Take care everyone and stick to facts instead of childish insults.
Posted by JBARON79

Now, that is certainly asking a lot.