Massacres from the air

The United States has long preferred to wage war from a distance, and especially from the air, lessening its own casualties and making use of its great technological and material advantages. Despite all talk about “smart war,” the inevitable result is large civilian casualties. In Afghanistan, faced with reverses in its war there, and a shortage of troops as a result of their vast deployment in Iraq, the U.S. has resorted even more frequently to air strikes – with the inevitable result.

Demand for review of Afghan airstrikes
The Australian – August 27, 2008

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai’s Government has demanded a review of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and their use of airstrikes in civilian areas, after claims that many civilians had died in recent raids by foreign forces.

In a harshly worded statement, the Government ordered its ministries of foreign affairs and defence to review the presence of foreign troops, regulate their presence with a status-of-forces agreement and negotiate a possible end to “airstrikes on civilian targets, unco-ordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians”.

The statement appears to be aimed at both international forces in Afghanistan: the US-led coalition, which conducts special forces counter-terrorism operations and trains the fledgling Afghan army and police, and the UN-mandated, NATO-led force providing security for the war-ravaged nation.

The Government’s decision follows a weekend clash and airstrikes in western Afghanistan where Afghan officials say about 90 civilians, including women and children, were killed.
US-led coalition troops, which were supporting Afghan commandos during the raid, said they believed 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, and five civilians were killed during the raid in the village of Azizabad, in Herat province.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters yesterday that foreign forces in Afghanistan “take every precaution to try to avoid innocent civilian casualties”.
Asked about Mr Karzai’s concerns about civilian casualties, Mr Fratto said an investigation was under way. He said the Defence Department believed “it was a good strike”.
UN Confirms 90 Afghan Civilians Killed in US Attack

Posted August 26, 2008 – Antiwar.com

Following an investigation by their Assistance Mission for Afghanistan, the United Nations has announced that it is convinced that a minimum of 90 civilians were killed in Friday’s US airstrike in Herat Province. This number, they reported, included 60 children, and stands as one of the largest incidents of US-inflicted civilian casualties since the 2001 invasion.

The attack has done grave harm for support of both international troops and the Karzai government among the Afghan populace. President Karzai has attempted to mitigate the harm to his administration by firing a top army general and annoucing that his cabinet was reviewing the presence of NATO forces and would demand a formal agreement stipulating their authority.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero however denied that they had been contacted by the Afghan government regarding any renegotiations, and said the presence was “on the basis of a United Nations mandate”. Moreover, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini ruled out any possibility of foreign forces withdrawing from Afghanistan, insisting that at most it would lead to a different way of managing the presence of the nearly 70,000 foreign forces presently in Afghanistan.

The United States spent most of the weekend denying that any civilians were killed in the attack, which they initially claimed killed 30 militants, though they later revised that number to 25 militants and 5 civilians.

The White House expressed “regret” for the deaths of innocent Afghans, while blaming the Taliban for “placing civilians in harm’s way”. The Pentagon defended the attack, despite the civilians casualties, as a “legitimate” assault on the Taliban. Afghan Minister Nematullah Shahrani disputed this account, however, and challenged the US to provide any proof that Taliban were at the site of the attack.

compiled by Jason Ditz