Last Updated 8/24 6:00 PM EST
Following up on a previous story, hundreds of angry residents took to the streets of Azizabad, the small village in Herat province that was the site of what appears to be the largest incident of US-inflicted civilian casualties since the 2001 invasion, pelting Afghan troops with stones and destroying a police car and checkpoint. Shots were fired to disperse the crowd, and four people were reportedly wounded.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement strongly condemning the airstrike, whose toll government officials reported has risen to 95, most of which Minister Nematullah Shahrani reported were women and children. President Karzai reportedly called the strikes careless and uncoordinated, while another anonymous official is quoted as saying “it provides propaganda to the Taliban if they don’t take responsibility.” In a later decree, President Karzai announced the firing of General Jalandar Shah Behnam, the top ranking Afghan Army official in western Afghanistan.
On that front, the United States military has announced an investigation into the matter, though they claim to remain “very confident” that only 30 people had been killed, and all of them militants. This however contradicts a statement by NATO spokesman Brigadier-General Richard Blanchette, who said investigators had already verified that at least five civilians, three women and two children, were killed in the bombing.
The next day, White House Spokesman Tony Fratto expressed “regret” for the loss of life among Afghan civilians, while blaming the Taliban and militants for placing civilians “in harm’s way”
compiled by Jason Ditz
It is perfectly clear to me that these actions by the US are delberate; they have decided that the local people are not supporting the occupation and not cooperating with the foreign troops so every effort is being made to punish the citizens for their intransigence. There is simply no excuse to these killings of innocent civilians given the level of sophistication of the US military.
It is one of the most depraved and vicious acts by a country that claims to be a democracy and that upholds the rule of law but what we are seeing is a brutal hegemon at work. One day coming, hopefully sooner rather than later, the US is going to be called to account and when that happens, no one is going to sympathize or assist them in any way.
War driven economies exactly do what's being done in Iraq, Afghanistan in particular and all over the world in spirit. Very soon we are going to see this tornado of hatred, imperialism, fuelled by lust for more power by those who already have enuff, coupled with tons n tons of dead bodies and rivers upon rivers of innocent blood, turn its face towards Pakistan and all Hell will break loose.
Only if the few sensible people, brave enough to have come this far, will do little more, in the right direction.
God Help us All!
The US military has obvious reasons to lie about inflicting civilian casualties, while it seems likely that the Afghan government knows the truth about Afghan civilian casualties and has little reason to lie or exaggerate. As a loyal American and Korean War veteran I am getting sick and tired of being fed obviously false information by our military. Experience over the past six years plainly shows a pattern of US military lying about civilian casualties caused by air strikes which almost always turn out later to have caused the losses complained of by the Afghan government. Somebody needs to take responsibility for this repetitive behavior, and as Commander-In-Chief our President should be called to account.
In Iraq so as in Afghanistan and elsewhere united states militarism regime has done these killings just for its cause which is to dominate the entire Middle East and Central Asia militarily, showing who is the tyrant…., the US and British monarchism, the falsified British Labor party, or for that matter the lagging Swedish Social democrats, the new Europeans fascism as Italian government headed by Berlusconi are those that are involved in sharing the peoples wealth in Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, sooner or later US with its criminal European elements need to widen this war into African Horn, which to some degree they are already there and conducting local but small war, therefore they need as much as oil as they can to continue their regional occupational war and there are plenty of it in both the Middle East and Central Asia. Meanwhile the US and Europeans economical and world domination prospect of the idea is about dominating the world oil supplies and therefore people in both region are paying for it with their life…. facing the wars in Middle East and upcoming war in Central Asia. The main intent by the US and British to invade Afghanistan and occupying the countries was based on the fact that they already hade a platform of military basses in the area yet not as a land bases, or if you will permanents bases so close to Iran, Syria and central Asia, with invading Afghanistan and Iraq the US and NATO militarism regime have widens the US and Europeans capitalism/militarism dream in occupying the area.
NATO is nothing but another militarism regime paid and feed mostly by the USA and its militarism regime, the Kosovo war, dividing Yugoslavia, were conducted by the Balkan Mafia not the people of Yugoslavia for freedom from “socialism“….?, the Afghanistan and Iraq occupation all are connected for that purpose *Occupying the entire Middle East and Central Asia* war in Kosovo was to open a corridor toward Central Asia, Kosovo war was conducted with the help of non but Madeline Albright, the what is called “democrats left wing” which is a wing within the Neo-Cons warmongers ideologue, in the other hand, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer and the rest of the members of what is called Neo-Cons are non but rest of this block of Neo-fascism.