The Washington Post reported earlier today that NATO’s fact-finding team has determined that about 125 people were killed in Friday’s US air strike in the Kunduz Province of Afghanistan, and that the German commander who ordered it had used a single informant as the source of his claim that there were no civilians in the region in violation of rules meant to limit civilian casualties.
Initial reports had Friday’s attack killing at least 90 people, dozens of them civilians. Militants hijacked a pair of NATO fuel tankers entering the country from nearby Tajikistan, and drove them to the village where they offered free fuel to villagers. Hundreds had reportedly gathered to syphon fuel from the tankers when the air strike destroyed them, setting off a fire ball that caused massive death and destruction. The US initially insisted that no civilians were killed, but later expressed “regret” and conceded that some may have been.
NATO spokesman General Eric Tremblay however denied the reports that the early findings from investigators pointed any rule breaches and insisted that though the investigators are on the ground they haven’t reported any findings yet.
The Washington Post defended its report in the face of the denial, pointing out that one of its reporters has actually accompanied the “fact-finding team” and that all of the claims in the article came directly from comments by the team.
Bad timing for the triggerman… A fools errand from the start……. F*ck Unocal and their consortium…
Their pipeline will not work out in spite of all the games & killings… Even the QUEEN [apparently] is tired of banging their OWN heads against the wall…..& WHERZ the MONEY??? That's the trouble in Afghanistan…. The cost reward picture is all costs & meager or NO rewards.. It just AIN'T WORTH IT..!!
That's right…blame the German…I guess the fabulous lilttle unmanned surveillance drones were all too busy hunting for wedding parties, schools and farmers to attack to worry with the fuel trucks allegedly nicked by the Taliban. I've yet to hear HOW they were hijacked. Smells like black market doings to me…and a heroic effort to dispose of the evidence. Perhaps the sleuths of the 'free press' could find someone knowledgable to tell them what's up…instead of all the 'Sgt. Shultzes' at NATO command…telling us they "know nothing" in so many immaginative ways.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if it comes out that the U.S. strong-armed the German commander into ordering the air strike. After all, the U.S. military has been whining for months about how the NATO allies are unreliable and indecisive:
"German troops have long been criticized for restrictions that limit the battle their troops see. A U.S. based military analyst, Anthony Cordesman, said German troops don't have 'the situational and combat experience' to confront Taliban on the ground.
"'They're as oriented toward staying in their armored vehicles as any group I've met,' Cordesman said. 'They're not active enough to present much of a threat to the Taliban most of the time.'"
Message to the Bundeswehr: Get out of Afghanistan and stop playing the subservient vassal to the U.S.