Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Top Commander Says Army Reaches "Distinctly Different Conclusions" About Civilian Killings In Afghanistan

(CBS/AP)  The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the military has come to "distinctly different conclusions" about how dozens of civilians died in an air raid conducted by American forces.

Speaking to reporters at Camp Eggers in Kabul, McKiernan said Taliban extremists beheaded three villagers over the weekend in the start of what he described as an extended battle that ended with U.S. airstrikes killing at least 25 Taliban militants.

McKiernan noted the claims of local officials that civilians were also killed.

The international Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that dozens of civilians, including women and children, were among the dead across two villages. The U.S. is conducting a joint investigation of the incident with Afghani authorities, but McKiernan said allegations that the military was chiefly responsible for the deaths is premature.

"We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of those civilian casualties," he said Wednesday. (Click here to hear Gen. McKiernan's remarks)

McKiernan wouldn't reveal any of the information, saying that he preferred to wait until he could confirm the facts. He said a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation of the incident, which began Wednesday, would probably take a few more days.

"We do have people out there on the ground who will continue to follow this up with our Afghanistan counterparts to get to the truth," McKiernan said. He added: "It is certainly a technique of the Taliban and other insurgent groups to claim civilian casualties at every event, so we've just got to do the right investigation on this."

The general's remarks come as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration "deeply, deeply" regrets the loss of innocent life apparently as the result of a U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and will undertake a full review of the incident.

Opening a meeting with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. State Department in Washington, Clinton said Wednesday that any loss of innocent life was "particularly painful."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in Washington for his first meeting with President Barack Obama, thanked Clinton for "showing concern and regret" and said he hoped the countries "can work together to completely reduce civilian casualties in the struggle against terrorism."

Karzai will raise the issue of civilian deaths with Mr. Obama, a statement from Karzai's office said.

The first images from the bombings in Farah province emerged Wednesday. Photos from the site obtained by The Associated Press showed villagers burying the dead in about a dozen fresh graves, while others dug through the rubble of demolished mud-brick homes.

The international Red Cross team in Farah Province's Bala Baluk district on Tuesday saw "dozens of bodies in each of the two locations that we went to," said spokeswoman Jessica Barry.

"There were bodies, there were graves, and there were people burying bodies when we were there," she said. "We do confirm women and children. There were women and children."

Civilian deaths have caused increasing friction between the Afghan and U.S. governments, and Karzai has long pleaded with American officials to reduce civilian casualties in their operations. U.S. and NATO officials accuse the Taliban militants of fighting from within civilian homes, thus putting them in danger.

Mohammad Nieem Qadderdan, a former district chief of Bala Buluk, said between 100 and 120 people were killed in the attacks. He said villagers were still uncovering bodies, some of which were missing limbs or were torn into small pieces, he said.

"People are still looking through the rubble," Qadderdan said. "We need more people to help us. Many families left the villages, fearing other strikes."

Provincial authorities have told villagers not to bury the bodies, but instead to line them up for the officials conducting the investigation to see, Qadderdan said.

The fighting broke out Monday soon after Taliban fighters - including Taliban from Pakistan and Iran - massed in Farah province in western Afghanistan, said Belqis Roshan, a member of Farah's provincial council. The provincial police chief, Abdul Ghafar, said 25 militants and three police officers died in that battle near the village of Ganjabad in Bala Baluk district, a Taliban-controlled area near the border with Iran.

Villagers told Afghan officials they put children, women, and elderly men in several housing compounds in the village of Gerani - about 3 miles to the east - to keep them safe. But villagers said fighter aircraft later targeted those compounds, killing a majority of those inside, according to Roshan and other officials.

A Western official in Kabul said Marine special operations forces - which fall under the U.S. coalition - called in the airstrikes. The official asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Villagers brought about 30 bodies, including women and children, to Farah city to show the governor Tuesday, said Abdul Basir Khan, a member of the provincial council.

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 lie and say civilians have died in coalition strikes. But the international Red Cross report and other official accounts added weight to villagers' claims in Bala Baluk.

In remarks in the United States on Tuesday, Karzai alluded to the problem of civilian casualties without mentioning the bombing deaths. He said the success of the new U.S. war strategy depends on "making sure absolutely that Afghans don't suffer - that Afghan civilians are protected."

"This war against terrorism will succeed only if we fight it from a higher platform of morality," he said in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Asked later to clarify, Karzai said, "We must be conducting this war as better human beings," and recognize that "force won't buy you obedience."

An Afghan government commission previously found that an August 2008 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, 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.

[greybeardvet]

Killing civilians is how we lost the hearts of the Vietnamese and it is going to defeat us again unless we get smart quick. The first thing we have to do is give direct orders to the troops on the ground that they cannot attack civilian targets. General McKiernan claims that he told them to back off, but that isn't good enough. They know he's just trying to cover his own a$$ and he won't take any punitive action against them. So the Marine special forces that called in the deadly air strikes are smugly certain that they got away with it. They should be court martialed.

[Culture_Warrior_in_09]

The Taliban are nothing but evil sent by the devil. To hell with their ideology.
Posted by rmoore17 at 4:06 AM : May 7, 2009


That's exactly where the Taliban and the rest of the fundamental Muslim world is heading, straight to hell. Unless they all repent and come to Christ, the way, the Truth, and the life.

[guyfrompa45]

rednomo - No killings should be tolerated but to compare these to the Taliban beheading civilians is a little bit of a stretch.

[rednomo]

krisinal - Yea waterboarding is bad, Beheading however seems ok..
Posted by guyfrompa45


US interrogators may have killed dozens, human rights researcher and rights group say

BY JOHN BYRNE

Published: May 6, 2009

United States interrogators killed nearly four dozen detainees during or after their interrogations, according a report published by a human rights researcher based on a Human Rights First report and followup investigations.

In all, 98 detainees have died while in US hands. Thirty-four homicides have been identified, with at least eight detainees ? and as many as 12 ? having been tortured to death, according to a 2006 Human Rights First report that underwrites the researcher?s posting. The causes of 48 more deaths remain uncertain.

The researcher, John Sifton, worked for five years for Human Rights Watch. In a posting Tuesday, he documents myriad cases of detainees who died at the hands of their US interrogators. Some of the instances he cites are graphic.

Most of those taken captive were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include at least one Afghani soldier, Jamal Naseer, who was mistakenly arrested in 2004. ?Those arrested with Naseer later said that during interrogations U.S. personnel punched and kicked them, hung them upside down, and hit them with sticks or cables,? Sifton writes. ?Some said they were doused with cold water and forced to lie in the snow. Nasser collapsed about two weeks after the arrest, complaining of stomach pain, probably an internal hemorrhage.?

Another Afghan killing occurred in 2002. Mohammad Sayari was killed by four U.S. servicemembers after being detained for allegedly ?following their movements.? A Pentagon document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2005 said that the Defense Department found a captain and three sergeants had ?murdered? Sayari, but the section dealing with the department?s probe was redacted.

Perhaps the most macabre case occurred in Iraq, which was documented in a Human Rights First report in 2006.

?Nagem Sadoon Hatab? a 52-year-old Iraqi, was killed while in U.S. custody at a holding camp close to Nasiriyah,? the group wrote. ?Although a U.S. Army medical examiner found that Hatab had died of strangulation, the evidence that would have been required to secure accountability for his death ? Hatab?s body ? was rendered unusable in court. Hatab?s internal organs were left exposed on an airport tarmac for hours; in the blistering Baghdad heat, the organs were destroyed; the throat bone that would have supported the Army medical examiner?s findings of strangulation was never found.?

[guyfrompa45]

krisinal - Yea waterboarding is bad, Beheading however seems ok..

[desertpro]

Nofooling:
Its kneejerk morons like you who give the true genecidal leaders of this world the propoganda support to do their evil. Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler etc.. could always use a helpful idiot to come along and play the "evereybody does it" Big Lie. I can not stand Castro for instance but I do not claim he commits genocide because to my knowledge he does not. For thirty years of military service I have had to go over seas and deal with the aftermath of real Genocide (starting with the Pol Pot Govt in 79) only to come back and listen to no nothing morons like you. You would not know a death camp from a drive through or a killing field from a play ground. Stuff it! you ignorant little couch authority.

[Honorplease]

I suspect that their synaptic membranes are being pressed against the opcipital portions of their skulls clouding their ability to reason and make sound judgements.
Posted by conservputz

Someone's mangina sprung a leak this morning,huh??

[dsr57]

IT IS ABOUT TIME WE ADMITTED DONG THIS CRAAP,

BUSH, OF COURSE, DENIED ANY INVOLVEMENT
Posted by pythoncharly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh God Shut up and move on

[Culture_Warrior_in_09]

Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Hey liberals, is this "torture"?
Posted by Culture_Warrior_in_09 at 6:06 PM : May 6, 2009

No stupid - it's murder.
Posted by hungry1968-15


Good hungry. You finally say something right. It IS murder.

Now when was the last time we "murdered" one of the jihadists at Gitmo?

How many jihadists have we "murdered" down there?

Give me a ballpark figure...

[nofoolling]

Standard operating procedure.

Kill civilians or innocents and blame it on the chosen bad guys to rally the people to support further violence.

All governments in the world do this, why?

Because war is big big big business $$$$$$$.

Check for yourself and see how much Cheney's co-conspirators at Haliburton have made so far off this genocidal madness.

ooh ooh, ah ah, wmd, wmd, terrorists, terrorists, bang, bang, vroom, vroom, $$$, $$$, (repeat). (Repeat, repeat, repeat)ª.

Wake up America!

Stop this immoral war.

[stupidrules3]

Posted by Darkness_79 at 5:33 PM : May 6, 2009

I fully agree. In every war throughout history, there have been dead civilians, as well as soldiers. In fact, when this was an understood fact, we actually won some wars. We never had problems until we sent in soldiers and told them they could not shoot. War is hell, people. That is why it is the last resort. War is in no way civilized and to try to conduct civilized warfare is ludicrous. No war will ever be won until the will to fight has been removed from one of the combatants. This has historically been done by making one side believe that surrender is the only alternative to utter annihilation. If we cannot stomach the consequences of war, we should not be involved in one.

[hungry1968-15]

Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Hey liberals, is this "torture"?
Posted by Culture_Warrior_in_09 at 6:06 PM : May 6, 2009





No stupid - it's murder.

[jimmyc1955]

rhs648 - I continue to be amazed at the double standard applied to the US military and Islamic terrorists.

In every conflict in the last 10 years radical muslim terrorists have hidden in crowds of civilians and launch attacks on the other sides civilians. They have a no loose position since people will cry and scream if any effort to attack the terrorists results in civilian casualties. So you folks who are rabid haters of the US military and efforts to protect civilians are actually endangering those civilians. You encourage those monsters who behead people, who kill teen girls for the crime of being raped, who beat women in the streets who don't dress appropriately - to their dictates.

Please explain to me why you have a double standard? Why don't you rail against them? What are you doing to express your outrage at a movement that took Afghanistan back to the stone age, deny eduction to all girls, permit only study of the Koran, and hold public executions for homosexuals.

Please explain to me why you back them and hate the US Military attempting to save the population of Afghanistan from the Taliban?

[globalcoolin]

Obama was going to make peace everywhere, by being cool, rock star, admiting Americans make other people hate us so he was going to "change" all that. By being him. The One.
He did the apology whimper and squat, and the bow wow, too. And the taliban is back to cutting off heads wearing black women's underwear on their heads. These campaign gestures are so costly.
Maybe Obama will blame it on a rogue element in his administration! (That's right! A Rouge Element..and...).

[weedapoopl]

The names of the people?
Posted by rhs648 at 7:35 PM : May 6, 2009

That's about it.

[rhs648]

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration "deeply, deeply" regrets the loss of innocent life apparently as the result of a U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and will undertake a full review of the incident."

Now this is change you can believe in...Now what is the difference between this and the previous administration?
Posted by novamba

Let me guess. The names of the people?

[j40405]

TAliban beheads civilians? What did everyone expect them to do. The taliban and Al Quieda are nothing but trash and they along with their suppoters need to be removed from the face of this planet permanently no matter the cost.

[Honorplease]

Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Hey liberals, is this "torture"?
Posted by Culture_Warrior_in_09

Duh !!
Reading your comment is

[Culture_Warrior_in_09]

Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Hey liberals, is this "torture"?

[novamba]

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration "deeply, deeply" regrets the loss of innocent life apparently as the result of a U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and will undertake a full review of the incident."

Now this is change you can believe in...Now what is the difference between this and the previous administration?