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The Number No One's Counting
Oct 20, 2009
The pictures are too gruesome to show. The charred bodies lie under
a makeshift shroud. Someone near the camera holds up an identity card -
giving one corpse a name, a history, a dignity that's now been stolen.
Nearby, the covered body of a child, no more than five or six. A
victim of a battle the child didn't know even existed. In this place,
at least four people have been killed. The figure could be higher. The
army knows how many men it's lost. Every day it gives new figures
for the number of Taliban it claims it's killed. But no-one seems to
know how many innocent civilians are being killed in this conflict.
Exclusive pictures obtained by Al Jazeera show the damage the war in
South Waziristan has brought to the town of Saroragha, which sits close
to the Afghan border. These are the first images images of what's
happening inside South Waziristan.
As the camera moves slowly from left to right, villagers are picking
through the rubble of their homes, trying to recover anything of value.
These are not Taliban fighters but ordinary people caught up in a
battle they knew was coming but had no way of escaping. The army has
been pounding positions here for months, using fighter planes and
helicopter gunships. It insists the targets were Taliban. Homes have
been wrecked.
It's hard to find out what's going on in the conflict zone. The army has sealed off the area
to the media, but the pictures confirm it has gained ground in the
area. Jundola is one of the gateways into the Taliban stronghold. It's
clear the area is now under Government control. The fight to gain more
ground closer to the centre of Taliban operations is going to be much
fiercer and inevitably more bloody.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Al-Jazeera English
The pictures are too gruesome to show. The charred bodies lie under
a makeshift shroud. Someone near the camera holds up an identity card -
giving one corpse a name, a history, a dignity that's now been stolen.
Nearby, the covered body of a child, no more than five or six. A
victim of a battle the child didn't know even existed. In this place,
at least four people have been killed. The figure could be higher. The
army knows how many men it's lost. Every day it gives new figures
for the number of Taliban it claims it's killed. But no-one seems to
know how many innocent civilians are being killed in this conflict.
Exclusive pictures obtained by Al Jazeera show the damage the war in
South Waziristan has brought to the town of Saroragha, which sits close
to the Afghan border. These are the first images images of what's
happening inside South Waziristan.
As the camera moves slowly from left to right, villagers are picking
through the rubble of their homes, trying to recover anything of value.
These are not Taliban fighters but ordinary people caught up in a
battle they knew was coming but had no way of escaping. The army has
been pounding positions here for months, using fighter planes and
helicopter gunships. It insists the targets were Taliban. Homes have
been wrecked.
It's hard to find out what's going on in the conflict zone. The army has sealed off the area
to the media, but the pictures confirm it has gained ground in the
area. Jundola is one of the gateways into the Taliban stronghold. It's
clear the area is now under Government control. The fight to gain more
ground closer to the centre of Taliban operations is going to be much
fiercer and inevitably more bloody.
The pictures are too gruesome to show. The charred bodies lie under
a makeshift shroud. Someone near the camera holds up an identity card -
giving one corpse a name, a history, a dignity that's now been stolen.
Nearby, the covered body of a child, no more than five or six. A
victim of a battle the child didn't know even existed. In this place,
at least four people have been killed. The figure could be higher. The
army knows how many men it's lost. Every day it gives new figures
for the number of Taliban it claims it's killed. But no-one seems to
know how many innocent civilians are being killed in this conflict.
Exclusive pictures obtained by Al Jazeera show the damage the war in
South Waziristan has brought to the town of Saroragha, which sits close
to the Afghan border. These are the first images images of what's
happening inside South Waziristan.
As the camera moves slowly from left to right, villagers are picking
through the rubble of their homes, trying to recover anything of value.
These are not Taliban fighters but ordinary people caught up in a
battle they knew was coming but had no way of escaping. The army has
been pounding positions here for months, using fighter planes and
helicopter gunships. It insists the targets were Taliban. Homes have
been wrecked.
It's hard to find out what's going on in the conflict zone. The army has sealed off the area
to the media, but the pictures confirm it has gained ground in the
area. Jundola is one of the gateways into the Taliban stronghold. It's
clear the area is now under Government control. The fight to gain more
ground closer to the centre of Taliban operations is going to be much
fiercer and inevitably more bloody.
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