.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, August 03, 2007

"Several hundred" Afghan civilians killed?

At this point, we don't know the real story. The US/NATO in Afghanistan bombed a large gathering of people in Helmand.
The U.S. military said in a statement late on Thursday that coalition forces conducted a precision air strike against two "notorious Taliban commanders" conducting a leadership meeting in a remote area of the Baghran district on Thursday.

But the Afghani witness stories vary,
In the Lashkar Gah hospital, Shokhi Khan, a relative of one of the wounded, said several hundred civilians were killed or wounded in the strikes.

He said people had gathered for picnics and to go to a shrine in Baghran district north of Lashkar Gah on Thursday when the raids started....


Some residents and an official said the bombings occurred as a huge crowd of people had gathered to watch a public execution by Taliban fighters.

A Taliban spokesman said there was no public execution and those killed were all civilians attending a ceremony at a shrine.

There was no independent verification of the reported accounts from either side.

No idea what the true story is at this point or how many were really wounded and killed. Both the US and Taleban have reason to shape the story.

In the current environment with so much hostility towards the US over other civilian killings, the Afghani sentiment is likely to be against the US unless they can supply some serious proof.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home