US Raids Made 2,000 Afghans Homeless: Red Cross
KABUL - Bombing by US forces in western Afghanistan last month wrecked 173 houses and left 2,000 people homeless, the Red Cross said, announcing findings of its assessment of the damage.
Preliminary UN and Afghan investigations have found that around 50 civilians were killed in the April 27 and 29 assaults, which involved US Special Forces, with final reports due this week. 
The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed in a statement that the clashes “killed dozens of civilians” and reprimanded foreign forces over civilian casualties caused in operations against Taliban militants.
The assault also “left 230 families, almost 2,000 people, in four villages homeless,” it said.
A delegation from the Red Cross and the Afghan Red Crescent Society also found that “173 houses had been destroyed or were so badly damaged as to be uninhabitable.”
The groups are distributing relief to the displaced families, including food, tarpaulins, pressure cookers, blankets and jerry cans.
The US-led coalition has said 136 Taliban fighters were killed in the clashes.
It is investigating claims of civilian deaths, with the reported toll one of the highest in the campaign against the militants, which has lasted nearly six years. The US military has said an “appropriate level of force” was used.
The head of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, said all sides involved in the conflict were “legally obliged to distinguish at all times between legitimate military objectives and the civilian population and civilian objects.”
They must weigh up the possible incidental loss of civilian life and damage against the expected military outcome of an attack, Stocker said in the statement.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse.
To eradicate the Taliban we need to get to the root cause of why they are able to garner the support they have to begin with. All the evidence points to Pakistan as the main culprit as it is in their strategic interests to see the Taliban (their prodigy) in power in Afghanistan. To eradicate the Taliban we need to first address the issue of democracy in Pakistan. There is no other way. Murdering (collateral damage ?!!) innocent Afghanis is not the answer.
Five years into the ‘war’ in Afghanistan, intelligence is finally seeing a link between activities in Pakistan and the fighting in Afghanistan. Pakistan is the 5th largest receiver of US Aid in the world and has been not held accountable for its activities in relation to Afghanistan in terms of harboring Taliban, education camps for Taliban and funding for extremists. Democracy is only a partial answer as democracy based on a capitalist model tends to sway in the direction of funding not the ideal of equal rights for humanity.
It is also in the best interest of the opium traders to keep the war going. In chaos, they can keep the growing and trafficking business alive.
In addition to those that believe in jihad, money can always be used as an incentive to encourage the impoverished and unemployed to join the fighting.
The US ruling class has no interest in establishing democracy in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
For example, in 1953 in Iran the US and British overthrew an democratically-elected government and installed their own puppet dictator.
I haven’t heard of any country the US corporate gang has used its military and installed a democratic government.