Afghan protest at civilian deaths 'in US air strike'

[unknownprince]

7 July 2011 Last updated at 09:49 ET

BBC News - Afghan protest at civilian deaths 'in Nato air strike'Afghan protest at civilian deaths 'in Nato air strike'


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Hundreds of people have held a protest in eastern Afghanistan about the deaths of up to 13 civilians, including women and children, in a Nato air strike.
The international alliance confirmed that civilians were accidentally killed in a battle with insurgents on Tuesday night in Khost province.
Taliban insurgents have launched many attacks in the restive province, which lies on the border with Pakistan.
But the issue of civilian casualties at the hands of Nato is highly sensitive.
The events late on Tuesday night in Khost began with a gun battle.
Nato says that Afghan and foreign soldiers were looking for insurgents belonging to the militant Haqqani network when they came under fire.
It was dark and the insurgents were hiding among trees, according to the alliance. An air strike was called in, killing four Haqqani fighters. On further investigation, eight children and three women were found to be among the dead. Local villagers say two other men were also killed.
Military sources say they were unaware that the civilians were there and believe that they were the insurgents' family members, the BBC's Quentin Somerville in Kabul reports.
The police chief of Khost province, Sardar Mohammad Zazi, told the BBC that the attack took place during a joint operation targeting a Haqqani militant commander.
Widespread anger But on Thursday hundreds of people blocked a highway to protest against the deaths.
"This morning, the tribe of Zadran decided this was injustice, so close to 2,000 people came and blocked the Khost -Gardez highway,'' a villager told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul.
There is widespread anger among Afghans about civilian casualties.
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion a decade ago hit record levels in 2010, according to a report by the Kabul-based Afghanistan Rights Monitor in February.
Some 2,421 civilians were killed, most at the hands of insurgents, the group said. Foreign troops were to blame for about a fifth of all deaths - a slight fall on the previous year, according to the report.
President Karzai has issued several warnings to the Nato-led mission that killing Afghans, even by accident, is unacceptable. He has called for an end to night missions.

[unknownprince]

they never say US, the always say NATO instead, so I changed the title.

[unknownprince]

Civilians killed in Afghan airstrike

2011-07-07 18:56











Khost - Up to 13 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in a Nato airstrike on Thursday in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, provincial police chief Mohamad Zazai said.
"Unfortunately eight women, four children, and one man were killed in a Nato airstrike on a residential house in Dowamanda district early this morning," Zazai said.
He said four militants from the Taliban-linked Haqqani network were also killed in the strike.
"The body of a Haqqani commander and three fighters have also been recovered from the vicinity of the house. A delegation has been sent to investigate the incident," he said.
A spokesperson for the provincial governor confirmed that civilians had been killed in the incident but gave no further details.
Nato's International Security Assistance Force said those killed were family members of the Haqqani network, which is a target of the alliance force.
A spokesperson for the coalition said Afghan-led forces had gone in search of the insurgents when they came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
"Responding to the insurgent attack, the security forces returned fire and called in an air weapons team.

"The subsequent air strike killed several insurgents and unintentionally a number of associated family members," the spokesperson said.
The deaths triggered protests that blocked the main highway to Kabul nearby.
They come a day after provincial authorities in southern Ghazni claimed two civilians were killed in another military incident. Nato said it was looking into those claims.
- AFP

[unknownprince]

Afghans protest NATO air raid
Thu Jul 7, 2011 6:27PM
PressTV - Afghans protest NATO air raid
Latest reports say hundreds of angry Afghans have taken to the streets to protest the deaths of several civilians in fresh US-led NATO air strikes.


The protesters in Dumanda district of Khost province chanted anti-US slogans and blocked main roads in the region.

The protests come as at least 13 civilians were killed in an air raid in the eastern Afghan province of Khost - - 12 were women and children.

The air strike came a day after a similar attack left two civilians dead in Ghazni province.

The US-led military alliance has acknowledged killing Afghan civilians.

"At the time it was unknown to the security forces that those insurgents were operating among women and children," Reuters quoted a NATO spokesman as saying.

Angry protesters urged the Afghan government to take serious action against the US-led strikes on civilians.

The demonstrators threatened to take up arms and fight against Americans if they refuse to leave their country.


Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the US-led airstrikes and ground operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led foreign forces. The loss of civilian lives at the hands of foreign forces has drastically raised anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

The surge in violence in the country comes despite the presence of nearly 150,000 foreign troops that claim to be engaged in a so-called war on terror.

The US-led war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record highs, has become the longest war in the US history.

JR/