NATO Warplane Attacks Afghan Women, Killing Eight

Women Were Collecting Firewood, Were Assumed to Be Terrorists

A NATO warplane attacked a group of women overnight on the outskirts of the village of Norlam, in the Laghman Province, killing eight of them and wounding seven others.

According to villagers the group of about 30 women had gone out to collect firewood early in the morning, and came under attack by the warplane outside of the village. NATO initially insisted they had “positively identified hostile intent” from the unarmed women, who they called “insurgents.” They later expressed “regret” and claimed the deaths were “unintentional.”

Provincial officials blasted NATO for the attack, saying that they carried out the strike without any coordination with local or provincial officials, and promised an investigation into the incident. A significant anti-NATO protest broke out in the Laghman provincial capital city.

Attacks on civilians doing anything deemed out of the ordinary have been the hallmark of the 11 year NATO occupation, from attacking teens returning from a volleyball game that ran late to helicopters targeting cucumber farmers after assuming the cucumbers were some sort of weapon.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.