While the US is still insisting there is “no evidence” of any civilians killed in Friday’s attacks on the Helmand Province, the United Nations has conducted a preliminary assessment, and found at least 18 civilians killed in the US airstrikes, overwhelmingly women and children.
This is roughly in line with local estimates, which put the civilian death toll at 22 in the airstrikes, which destroyed a number of homes in the village of Lakari. The village is under the Taliban’s control, and used as one of several staging areas against Lashkar Gah.
Reports suggest that the US was attempting to target Taliban forces who occupy the village’s mosque, but ended up hitting nearby residential neighborhoods instead, leveling homes and burying a number of civilians within.
The US has promised a formal review, but so far only of the “credibility” of the allegations, and not of the death toll itself. This unwillingness to take such incidents seriously after initial reports is a big part of why official US reports tend to underreport the death tolls quite significantly, as by the time they decide something is credible enough to investigate, all the victims have been buried for months.
Two consecutive botched military actions under the command of this CinC.
December 30, 2016 U.S. Is Selling Weapons That Kill A Child Every 10 Minutes
While the world has been transfixed on the epic tragedy in Syria, another tragedy — a hidden one — has been consuming the children of Yemen. Battered by the twin evils of war and hunger, every 10 minutes a child in Yemen dies from malnutrition, diarrhea, or respiratory-tract infections, UNICEF reports. And without immediate medical attention, over 400,000 kids suffering from severe acute malnutrition could die, too. Why are so many of Yemen’s children going hungry and dying?
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