More than 90 killed in coalition strikes: investigation (Afghanistan)

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Source: AFP

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — An investigation has found that more than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in coalition air strikes days ago, an Afghan government minister told AFP Sunday.

President Hamid Karzai ordered the investigation into Friday's operation in the western province of Herat after Afghan officials said high numbers of civilians were killed but the US-led coalition said only 30 militants died.

The toll is one of the highest for civilians since international troops arrived in Afghanistan to topple the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and comes after a string of such incidents, most of them involving air strikes.

"We went to the area and found out that the bombardment was very heavy, lots of houses have been destroyed and more than 90 non-combatants including women, children and elderly people have died," the Islamic affairs minister told AFP after his visit to Shindand district earlier Sunday.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0i7dG9vn5Ry5b3Ozk65tNprYtXQ

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1. Commanders fired over Afghan deaths

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, has sacked an army general and a major after more than 100 civilians were reported to have been killed in an attack by US-led coalition forces.

The move came after a delegation appointed by Karzai travelled to the Shindand airstrip and Azizabad village in Herat in western Afghanistan to investigate reports that the civilians had died.

Eyewitnesses and local people say more than 100 civilians, many of them women and children, were killed in the attack.

US officials say only three civilians were killed along with 25 Taliban fighters.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/08/200882410517833582.html

[NeoConsSuck]

2. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3451115

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3. This seems to have new information, but alert on it if you want. nt