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Dozens of Afghan Civilians Die in Air Raids: Residents
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Dozens of civilians, including women and children, have been killed in two foreign air strikes in southern Afghanistan, residents and a local member of parliament said on Friday.
One of the raids by NATO hit houses in the Girishk district of Helmand province on Thursday evening, killing up to 50 civilians, a group of some 20 residents reported to journalists in Kandahar, the main city in the south.
Wali Jan Sabri, a parliamentarian from Helmand, said he had credible information that between 50 to 60 civilians had been killed in a battle between the Taliban and NATO forces in Girishk.
He said most of the victims were killed in air strikes.
"Yes, there was a battle ... and most of those killed were from NATO bombardment," he told Reuters.
The district chief of Girishk, Manaf Khan, said more than 20 civilians were killed in NATO bombing when they were trying to flee the battle.
"The fighting was fierce between Taliban and NATO," he told Reuters. "Civilians began to flee and 27 or 28 of them were killed while fleeing NATO bombing. I do not have information about the wounded," he said.
He later phoned Reuters to say said that 50 Taliban were also killed in the bombing and battle. The Taliban could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for British forces in Helmand said there was an ongoing operation in the province, but denied there had been any civilian casualties around Girishk.
"We have no reports of any such incidents in Girishk yesterday at all. There have been no people taken to the hospital ... in relation to anything around Girishk," said Lieutenant-Colonel Charlie Mayo.
"Because the Taliban don't wear uniforms like us, as soon as they are killed, they are called civilians, the key is are they male or female and if they are male, what age are they?"
Due to the remoteness of the region it was not immediately possible to verify the information.
Some 2,000 British and Afghan army forces have been conducting an operation in the Upper Girishk valley this week to clear Taliban insurgents from the area.
The second attack hit two houses in the Char Cheno district of neighboring Uruzgan late on Thursday afternoon and killed 15 civilians there, several villagers from the area told reporters by telephone.
© Reuters 2007.
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Daaam
Afghan women have such beautiful eyes....
It is surely a pity that ordinary people are all too often horrible victims of those who do war. Afghanistan harbors and has training grounds for terrorists. What should the world do?
It seems to me tht if SWAT teams in the US took to attacking neighborhoods to get the criminals with no effort to protect innocent civilians, we'd have much the same thing here as in Afghanistan and Iraq. You can imagine how law enforcement would totally break down once communities saw the police as enemies threatening the people's lives instead of being there to provide security. Why should these people not want to take up arms and defend themselves from these random onslaughts? Innocent families being bombed is what many would call overkill.
The Good Germans like Shenonymous have no problem with mass killings of foreigners. If US citizens were able to think for themselves they would try to understand how our allies became our enemies. How did Osama go from building roads in the Sudan after the Soviet/Afghan war to becoming our enemy. If they all just hate the West and are just crazy mindless killers...how were they our allies at one point? Why did Osama go back to the family construction bussiness after the war with the Soviets? The only lesson to be drawn from all this is how easy it is for leaders to control their populations for their own purposes.
A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.
– German proverb
Shenonymous:
Treat all human beings with dignity.
In the Declaration of Independence a major point was denouncing the housing of soldiers on foreign land. If We didn't want Britain to do it on North American soil why would people on the Arab peninsula want to allow it?
That is the number one demand of the so called "terrorists".
We Just need open dialogue.
The oil can be extracted and the US economy kept rolling within a social order that doesn't rape and murder those "beautiful eyes".
Some Afghan men have those eyes too DJ! My Afghan uncle in law has them. My Afghan husband and eye hope our children will too inshallah!
Is it just me or do i sense that Reuters is trying to make this picture another 'national geographic' moment. The last thing on the minds of Afghanis right now is the color of their eyes. Maybe Reuters should try and release pictures their own journalsits have shot of massacres by U.S. forces, which have been routinely covered up. Unfortunately no amount of 'sad children' pictures will move the stone-hearted americans and the taliban in their continued oppression of the Afghanis.
I have come up with an idea that might save the lives of many middle easterner's. That is that they should all carry puppies or kittens around. Then when it's found out in the US that all those puppies and kittens are being blown up there will be such an outcry that the war will be stopped.
No body seems to give a hoot about the bloody human death toll. People over hear seem more obsessed with cruelty to animals than they do humans.
"those puppies and kittens are being blown up there will be such an outcry that the war will be stopped"
This is absolutely correct !! Maybe we should start publishing images of decapitated dogs and cats in Iraq or Afghanistan. Darn ... the Paris Hilton set would swoon with 'compassion' !
dboylon is a namecaller without substance who doesn't deal with the question. Asked again: what is the best way to deal with terrorists? And by the way, terrorist do not want to talk, unless you can find even one who does. What about the idea that the Afghanis kick out the Taliban and al Qaeda? Same goes for Pakistan! I agree that the USA should get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and give up any other idea of war with Iran! Don't make the categorical mistake of calling every American the same as the Bush administration, the Republicans, and idiot Democrats who go along with their policies.
Afghans=people of Afghanistan
Afghanis=the money/currency of Afghanistan
Please use the proper terms. Afghans don't like to be referred to as their currency!
When people are oppressed and starving its hard for them to rise up and kick out their foriegn oppressers. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan backed Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Karzai yells at Musharaff daily about Pakistan's backing of these organizations in Afghanistan. Pakistan is the problem.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/28/ltm.04.html
I also wanted to add National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry actually helped the Afghan people by taking that photos of the girl with the spectacular blue-green eyes. That photo ended up moving people to donate hundreds of dollars for Afghan refugees. I am glad that the beauty of the Afghan people has moved people to help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McCurry
dc sorry ... i meant Afghans ( i have afghan connections too) and i totally agree that the main problem is Pakistan that uses the Taliban to control Afghanistan so as to empower itself strategically. However i do have issues with the concept of aid going to people based on how they look, which is what prompted the statements above regarding dogs and cats !
The real issue is how shallow and fickle we americans really are.