"Afghanistan calls attack ‘unacceptable’; NATO strike Sunday kills 27 civilians; Outrage could hamper efforts" by Joshua Partlow, Washington Post | February 23, 2010
QALAT, Afghanistan - A NATO airstrike that killed at least 27 civilians and wounded dozens drew a sharp rebuke from the Afghan government yesterday and could intensify a political backlash against the military offensive in the country.
US Special Forces helicopters targeted a convoy of buses traveling along a main road near the border of Uruzgan and Daikundi provinces on Sunday. The pilots opened fire after intercepting Taliban radio conversations, according to a senior US military official. The nearest coalition forces were approximately 7 miles away at the time....
Is the U.S. doing this on purpose to further destabilize the area and thus create the conditions for even more troops?
CUI BONO, readers?
A statement issued by the Afghan cabinet said 27 civilians were killed, including four women and a child, and 12 other people were injured. It was third time this month that civilians were killed in a coalition strike, and the deadliest attack on civilians in six months.
So McChrystal's new rules are basically dog s***.
The airstrike was not part of the large military offensive in town of Marja in neighboring Helmand province, where about 15,000 US and Afghan troops were in their 10th day of fighting insurgents.
Yeah, one day the troop levels were reported as half that, pffft.
US military officials view the Helmand operation as a chance to boost public support and momentum for their mission by demonstrating a decisive victory in one Taliban hotspot.
Oh, yeah, MASSACRING FAMILIES should win 'em right over!!
That goal could be undermined by outrage over civilian casualties.
Ya think?
The top American commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, held a video conference yesterday morning with regional commanders across the country to remind commanders about the need for “the judicious application of fire,’’ the senior military official said.
“There was no danger to coalition forces,’’ the official said, adding that McChrystal was “apoplectic’’ after learning about the accident.
McChrystal apologized to President Hamid Karzai after the airstrike, according to a statement from Karzai’s office. It was the second time this month that McChrystal has taken such a step.
HOLLOW WORDS!!
The first followed a rocket strike that killed at least 12 people in a home in Marja.
“It’s not the first or the last time this kind of incident has taken place. It’s business as usual,’’ said Hashim Watanwal, a parliament member from Uruzgan. “It’s one of those unprovoked blind bombings.’’
Watanwal said he spoke with Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, who instructed him to “call the people you know to tell them to stay calm, to stay patient, that there should be no retaliatory violence,’’ he recalled.
The governor of Uruzgan, Asadullah Hamdam, cautioned in an interview that many of the details about the airstrike remained unknown. He sent a delegation to the site of the attack, in the village of Khud, to investigate. The Afghan security forces do not have a continual presence in the area and violence remains common there, he said.
Under McChrystal, the American military has made reducing civilian casualties a top priority, as the US strategy has shifted from killing insurgents to protecting the Afghan people....
Doing a great job of it, huh?
These changes came after a recognition that killing civilians inflamed the insurgency and turned villagers against NATO and Afghan troops.
“Civilian casualties in this society is something that we failed to understand. We just did not understand it,’’ one senior NATO official said last week.
Then YOU GUYS MUST BE FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!
“We call it collateral damage; we call them compounds. Well, those are human beings and homes.’’
Yup, and THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING I WOULD TYPE!!!!
So STOP MURDERING THEM from ON HIGH and in other ways!
Also yesterday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a community meeting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 15 civilians including Mohammad Zaman Ghamsharik, a prominent tribal leader widely criticized for failing to prevent Osama bin Laden’s escape at Tora Bora after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Pfft!
You know where you can place the dead guy and the false-flag operation, assholes!
Yeah, right there!
Related:
"Now stop and think here for a moment. All revolutions depend on public support. Revolutionaries try to first win the people before they take on the government. So, no revolutionary goes out and murders civilians in cold blood. Did Washington and his men just mow down a marketplace of their fellow colonials for the heck of it? No, they did not. Washington and the Founding Fathers knew that their revolution to build a new country needed the support of those who would live in that country. This is true for every revolution in history. Therefore, these acts of terror being blamed on the insurgency must all be fakes, committed by intelligence agencies working for the governments to be blamed on the insurgents in order to destroy public support for the revolution." -- Wake the Flock Up
It is what I say EVERY DAY!
The bombing occurred outside Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. Police said a militant attacked tribal elders and government workers who were meeting with a few hundred Afghan refugees to discuss the distribution of land.
Why would they attack that? Cui bono?
Meanwhile, in the east of the country, NATO forces said they killed 14 insurgents in two clashes.
In the Marja offensive, fighting was less intense yesterday than in previous days. At the start of that offensive, a US rocket strike killed 12 civilians in a Marja house, near a site where insurgents were firing on American troops. Karzai expressed dismay about those killings and the US military temporarily suspended the use of the rocket system used before it was determined that it hit the intended target.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday that it had evacuated 28 sick and injured civilians from Marja to treatment facilities outside the area since the beginning of the offensive. Most required lifesaving medical treatment, it said.
--more--"