Afghan Govt Stands by Civilian Toll in US Strike

Dispute Over Photograph Fuels 'Doubts' of Report

NATO was never really disputing the idea of a civilian death toll in the January 15 US air strikes in Parwan Province, but officials are now implying that the Karzai government fabricated the incident, noting that one of the photographs included in the report, nominally of a funeral, was actually several years old.

“I would hope that we would get back to a relationship that’s based on, first of all that’s based on fact, insisted US Ambassador James Cunningham, who claimed “facts have been distorted” in the incident.

NATO refused to even address the fact that on January 19 they had confirmed civilian deaths in the strike, apparently pretending that statement never even happened.

The Karzai government is standing behind the report, and brought villagers from the site of the US air strikes to confirm the report. US officials keep going back to that photo, however, saying it is proof that the Afghans didn’t do a proper investigation.

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.