U.S. Denies Afghan Civilian Casualty Count

Military Says Reports Of 147 Civilian Deaths Were "Extremely Overexaggerated"; Pentagon To Add 3-Star General, Report Says

(CBS/AP)  The U.S. military said Friday reports that as many as 147 civilians died in fighting involving American forces and the Taliban were "extremely over-exaggerated" and investigators were still analyzing the data collected at the site.

In the south, meanwhile, four NATO soldiers and 21 civilians died in a string of insurgent attacks, and an unmanned U.S. drone crashed in central Ghazni province.

And the Pentagon plans to assign a three-star general to Kabul in a bid to bolster the senior military leadership as Afghan violence escalates, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday.

Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez will join Gen. David D. McKiernan, a four-star general, though Rodriguez's role in Kabul has yet to be determined, the report states. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to make the announcement, senior officials told the Journal.

Officials said preliminary findings of the joint U.S.-Afghan investigation into the deaths in the villages of Ganjabad and Gerani in the western Farah province could be released as early as Friday, but they have yet to schedule an announcement.

Reports of the large number of civilian deaths come at an awkward time for the Obama administration, as the U.S. steps up its military campaign here while emphasizing the importance of nonmilitary efforts to stabilize the country.

While the reports of civilian deaths at the hands of international force in the past were met by an immediate outcry from President Hamid Karzai's administration, this time the response was muted. The most ferocious reaction came from lawmakers in the parliament, who demanded of foreign troops' operations be regulated by a special agreement with the Afghan government, without specifying what that would entail.

A local official said that he collected from residents the names of 147 people killed during fighting on Monday night and Tuesday. If true, it would be the deadliest case of civilian casualties in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime.

But the U.S. military described that toll from the fighting as over the top.

"The investigators and the folks on the ground think that those numbers are extremely over-exaggerated," U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said. "We are definitely nowhere near those estimates."

Mathias said she could not yet provide estimates of how many people were killed because the team has yet to produce its findings.

Afghan residents say the destruction was from aerial bombing. U.S. officials have suggested that at least some of the deaths were caused by insurgents, whom the military accuses of using civilians as human shields when fighting with its forces.

In a video obtained Friday by Associated Press Television News, villagers are seen wrapping the mangled bodies of some of the victims in blankets and cloths and lining them up on the dusty ground.

In one shot, two children are lifted from a blanket with another adult already in it. The children's faces are blackened, and parts of their tunics are soaked in what appears to be coagulated blood.

Their limp bodies are then put on the ground, wrapped in another cloth and put next to the other bodies. It was not clear how many bodies were in the room where the video was shot.

The man who shot the video said many of the bodies he filmed in the village of Gerani on Tuesday were in pieces. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from security agencies.

It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Investigators on Thursday visited the scene of the violence, where sobbing relatives showed them graves and the demolished buildings where they said the victims had sheltered.

"The joint investigators are back and they are all discussing what they found," Mathias said. "We are still corroborating."

President Barack Obama expressed sympathy over the loss of life in a White House meeting Wednesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who contends that such killings undermine support for the fight against resurgent Taliban militants.

Defense Secretary Gates, whose two-day visit in Afghanistan was overshadowed by the case, offered a new expression of U.S. regret for the deaths but stopped short of taking blame.

"We regret any, even one, innocent civilian casualty and will make whatever amends are necessary," Gates said Thursday during a visit to the war zone. "We have expressed regret regardless of how this occurred."

Abdul Basir Khan, a member of Farah's provincial council who said he helped the joint delegation from Kabul with their examination Thursday, said he collected names of 147 dead - 55 at one site and 92 at another. Khan said he gave his tally to the Kabul team.

He said villagers told investigators that many of the dead were buried in mass graves of 20 or so people. Investigators did not exhume the bodies, according to Khan.

"They were pointing to graves and saying, 'This is my son, this is my daughter,"' Khan said.

Villagers said they gathered children, women and elderly men in several compounds near the village of Gerani to keep them away from the fighting, but that the compounds were hit by airstrikes. The International Committee of the Red Cross has also said that women and children were among dozens of dead people its teams saw in two villages.

But what happened remained a matter of dispute.

Three U.S. defense officials, speaking anonymously, said Thursday that it is possible the investigators would find a mix of causes for the deaths - that some were caused by the firefight between the Americans and the Taliban, some by the U.S. airstrike and some deliberately killed by Taliban fighters hoping U.S. bombings would be blamed.

In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, NATO said four of its soldiers died in a series of clashes and bombings.

Two of the alliance's soldiers died in a suicide attack in the southern Helmand province Thursday, NATO said in a statement. The blast also killed 21 civilians and wounded 23 others, said Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand's governor.

Initially, only 12 people were reported killed in the attack.

Separately, a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bomb, also in southern Afghanistan, where another British soldier died from a gunshot wound Thursday.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. Obama has ordered thousands of new troops to join the fight there and reverse the Taliban gains.

On Friday, a U.S. Air Force Predator drone went down in central Ghazni province's Qarabagh district, Mathias said. She ruled out insurgent activity in the area of the crash.

However, Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, said they had shot the drone down. It was impossible to verify the claim.

[gqb11]

"Americans are using the Israeli tactic, first go in and bomb 300 children in Gaza, then with a straight face lie, lie & lie until it all goes away.

Funny thing is they do this even when American soldiers are killed by the so called 'friendly fire' fiasco. As in the case of the US football player who was killed recently.

All this goes to show the US forces are crooked bunch."

You name me one army today that is fighting and has 0 collateral damage incidents. The French in Africa, the Chinese in Tibet, the Russians in Chechnya. They're all fighting wars with almost no media coverage and tearing up civilians, yet American troops that do all they can to not have collateral damage are derided. I hear no protest when your islamic radical buddies behead journalist, but when one American joe screws up you want to hang him.

Before you go pointing fingers about hypocrisy and crookedness...why don't you handle your blind hatred and prejudice against the U.S.

[lambor59]

This is the real genocide enacted by Bush and Obama.

[sammybull]

CBS Reported: US High Command Said that it was the Taliban that bombed and killed civilians and blamed the US Army For the Deaths.

Sounds Familiar....

Well the same claim was also made by the Sri-Lankan Army.. where the LTTE Terrorist shot its own people and are holding them form leaving the war zone... Have now bombed these so called hospitals and now blaming the Sri-lankan Army.

Yest the World press accepts only the Point of view from the Pro LTTE Terrorist group and not the SL Army.. But when it come to the Taliban they dismiss those terrorist and accepts the US Army Version. DOUBLE STANDARDS...............

Both USA and Sri-Lanka are batteling Terrorist, and i am shocked to see how the USA condems one country and not condem its own actions..

[noloyalisti]

The world's biggest purveyor of state sponsored terrorism denying the body count. What a surprise.

[noloyalisti]

Remember during the Vietnam War, everyone who was killed was Viet Cong. The gov't, military and media (actually all owned and run by big corporations) are doing it again.

[noloyalisti]

These are American terrorists (US military) denying killing people. Are you going to believe someone like that?

[boandco]

The US government lies about the million plus casualties in Iraq. They lied about Viet Nam. Afghanistan is nothing new. First the slaughter and then lie, lie lie. Why don't they accuse those civilians of hidding invisable weapons of mass destruction. Then at least they could justify their mass murder.

[1notrub11]

What is equally appalling is the silence of the "Anti-War Movement" now that its a democrat war. This fact alone exposes the underlying hypocrisy of the left.
Posted by azulene

An excellent and observant comment. I agree that those who contributed to electing the current administration to office and aren't getting their antiwar kickback, must be wondering what happened. My guess is that some form of reality has set in - funny how you never hear someone say: "I was wrong in part of my campaign rhetoric, this is how we need to handle it."

[kaylag04]

"extremely over-exaggerated"

Uh, there are levels of exaggeration? Even gradients of "over" exaggeration? So if the reports were simply "exaggerated", we'd be good-to-go?

[pepperwood2]

Here we go 1993 Ghosts of Rwanda - All over again! Genocide in the making. But we can go in 10 years later & apologize for the killings. Will it be 1 or 2 million this time???

UN condemns rebel attacks in Chad
Chadian troops. File photo
The outcome of the recent fighting could not be verified independently

The United Nations Security Council has condemned an offensive by armed groups battling the Chadian government in the east of the country.

It urged the rebels to stop fighting, saying "any attempt at destabilization of Chad by force is unacceptable".

[SanityPlease]

Americans are using the Israeli tactic, first go in and bomb 300 children in Gaza, then with a straight face lie, lie & lie until it all goes away.

Funny thing is they do this even when American soldiers are killed by the so called 'friendly fire' fiasco. As in the case of the US football player who was killed recently.

All this goes to show the US forces are crooked bunch.

[babooph]

US first tried a lie about not killing the civilians -now I am supposed to believe their follow up ?

[gravyboat45]

"yellow journilism"?

Is that when writers use their own paper to line their bird cage?

"yellow journalism"

"this story is false"

"the US is always a liar"

"polly want a nugget"

"truth is relevent"

"pancakes are better without syrup"

"all pregnant women glow"

"pee on me, it's ok, my parents are in Tahoe"

[ToolMangler1]

Hmmm, without reporters there we just won't know the truth, will we?
Posted by inventagod at 1:54 PM : May 8, 2009



HHHHMMMMMMM!!! Without the reporters the truth might come out, I can see yellow journalism a mile away. Why don't you read WWII news papers then read the same story written by the historians.

[gravyboat45]

Posted by noloyalisti at 11:24 AM Proletariat Unite! Wake up fool and think for yourself. MORON!
Posted by Tu_eres

Is this all you do, go from board to board callinn people names?

Troll.

[Tu_eres]

Posted by noloyalisti at 11:24 AM Proletariat Unite! Wake up fool and think for yourself. MORON!

[Tu_eres]

Pentagoons - "WE didn't do it!"

Hmmm, without reporters there we just won't know the truth, will we?
Posted by inventagod

Man up inventaclue. Go show the military how to fight.

[mysteriousjz]

What a relief !!!!! the number is not 147, but perhaps 100 killed-that is a bargain, also they were used as human shield-that is a fair console......some were killed by the bad guys (will be defined later)-so there you go, you and I are still "angel of peace" out there to do good for the people of mudhouses............

Combine all that, you and I all can sleep better tonight...........

[inventagod]

Pentagoons - "WE didn't do it!"

Hmmm, without reporters there we just won't know the truth, will we?

[ToolMangler1]

Pay attention folks...
the US military is no longer attempting to claim they are not responsible for the deaths. The US military did it. It is now only a question of how many.
Posted by bthomascoope at 9:08 AM : May 8, 2009



Ah!!! You are a 'true Taliban...