U.S. military: Taliban killings prompted airstrikes

[Turborama]

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Taliban used grenades, paraded bodies through villages, official says
NEW: U.S. believes Taliban planned attack expecting U.S. to call in airstrikes

(CNN) -- Afghan civilians were killed in U.S. airstrikes during fighting this week in western Afghanistan, local officials and the Red Cross said. The reports come as concerns mount over noncombatant casualties in the war against the Taliban.

But the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the U.S. military suspects the incident started when Taliban militants entered the area and beheaded three civilians.

And another senior U.S. military official said Taliban militants may have killed as many as 15 civilians with grenades and then paraded their shrapnel-riddled bodies through villages in western Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she "deeply regrets" the loss of civilian lives but pointed out "we don't know all of the circumstances" and promised an investigation.

=snip=

But U.S. officials believe the Taliban deliberately engineered a ground attack against Afghan and U.S. forces, expecting the United States would call in airstrikes. They said the Taliban were then prepared to kill the civilians. A senior U.S. military official said there was "very reliable intelligence" that Taliban fighters rounded up three families, including women and children, and killed them with grenades.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/afghan....

[Archae]

1. How about we give the Taliban a nuke!

They gather around the gift from the US..."Abdul, what's that ticking sound?"

[ShortnFiery]

3. That's SICK! Do you realize that the radiation poisoning would affect the entire ME?

Un-fucking-believably!

[ShortnFiery]

2. OMG! This smacks of the Israeli defense of killing Palestinians - they MADE the innocents get ...

in the way by having to LIVE THERE. What a morally bankrupt argument!

[Turborama]

4. "No one is disputing people died, it's how they died," the official said.

Did you read the whole article?

Even though I'm similarly sickened by what happened in Gaza and the stated rationale behind it, there really is no similarity apart from the fact that civilians have been killed. I haven't heard anyone from either side saying that Hamas deliberately murdered civilians to anger the Gazan populous against Israel (they didn't need to).

We will have to wait and see if the army can fully back their assertions up when it's properly investigated, I guess...

-- --- --

The official would not allow his name to be used because a preliminary investigation into the matter is ongoing and no conclusions have been reached.

Their bodies, shrapnel wounds visible, were then put into the backs of trucks and driven through the area in an effort to convince villagers that the U.S. military operation had killed them. The official said he did not know who drove the trucks -- other Taliban or local Afghans forced into duty.

"No one is disputing people died, it's how they died," the official said.

"What we do have is strong evidence to support that a number of women and children were killed by the Taliban and their bodies were driven by locals as evidence of U.S. bombing," the official said.

Some Afghan civilians may have been killed or wounded before the airstrikes during ground fighting between the Taliban and Afghanistan and U.S. forces, the official said. But the military's investigation found no evidence of large-scale civilian deaths resulting from the airstrikes themselves, despite the claims from Afghan officials and the Red Cross.

U.S. military investigators found no evidence of human remains in any of the four bomb craters it examined, the official said.

[ShortnFiery]

5. Yeah, I read it but I don't believe it. In WAR the first casualty is "the truth."

[Blue State Bandit]

6. No one side here has a monopoly on such "truth".

Sun-Tzu says "war IS deception".

Last year, I would be more apt to agree with your opinion here.

But I don't hear about American troops bombing schools

because they teach girls. It's usually an errant bomb, or bad intell, not malicious intent

No one's hands are clean here, but I'd hate to see your

distrust blind you from the possibility that the US Army

has been so stung by Bush-ian fabrications, that they find it near

impossible to pull off "the big lies" under Obama.

[Turborama]

7. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if this account of the Taliban's actions had an element of truth

Knowing that when they were in power they were carrying out a genocide of ethnic Hazaras (about 2 thirds into this documentary there is filmed evidence of this) I wouldn't put anything past the Taliban. However, you're of course entitled to believe whatever you want about the Taliban....

Warning, this short video and the documentary linked to above contain very disturbing images: History Analysis - The Taliban genocide of Afghans

[FarCenter]

10. Stories that don't explain the ethnicity and religion of the area are useless

The area appears to have Hazara, Tajik and Pashtun populations from ethnographic maps. The Taliban are usually Pashtun.

Were the victims Hazara or Tajik?

Judging by the picture in the NY Times, the destruction of buildings is not consistent with grenades.

[Turborama]

12. The fact that the Taliban have genocidal tendencies means this story *may* have an element of truth

Is what I was saying. They have carried out atrocities in the past and are just as capable of carrying them out now.

No-one is denying that airstikes were carried out, btw.

[L0oniX]

8. Why are we fighting the Taliban? I thought we were supposed to be fighting Al-Qaeda and Osama.

The never ending mighty morphing wars. We have the money for this but not SPHC?

[ronnie624]

13. Clearly, the "war on terror" will continue,

no matter which party holds the advantage, and the "wurlitzer" will continue to manufacture consent through the use of propaganda like the opening article.

If only we could get the vile, corrupting influence of corporate money out of our political system. I think that's the key to genuine reform.

[Turborama]

9. CBS: Top Commander In Afghanistan Discusses Air Strikes & Public Opinion With Katie Couric

=cut=

The estimate of civilian casualties varies between 30 and more than 100. At dispute now is who's responsible. It will certainly be a topic of discussion as Secretary Gates meets with U.S. military commanders.

But General David McKiernan, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, raised some doubts Wednesday about whether it was an American air strike that caused the deaths when he sat down with Couric earlier in the day.

Couric: The Red Cross says that women and children are among the dozens killed in this air strike. How did this happen?

McKiernan: We have some information that leads us to believe that Taliban purposely caused civilian casualties, and then alleged that this is a result of U.S. air support...

Interview continues, here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/06/eveningnews/m...

[Turborama]

11. Military: Taliban Were Beheading Locals

Top Commander Says Army Reaches "Distinctly Different Conclusions" About Civilian Killings In Afghanistan

CBS

(CBS/AP) The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the military has come to "distinctly different conclusions" about how dozens of civilians died in an air raid conducted by American forces. Speaking to reporters at Camp Eggers in Kabul, McKiernan said Taliban extremists beheaded three villagers over the weekend in the start of what he described as an extended battle that ended with U.S. airstrikes killing at least 25 Taliban militants.

McKiernan noted the claims of local officials that civilians were also killed.

The international Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that dozens of civilians, including women and children, were among the dead across two villages. The U.S. is conducting a joint investigation of the incident with Afghani authorities, but McKiernan said allegations that the military was chiefly responsible for the deaths is premature.

"We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of those civilian casualties," he said Wednesday. McKiernan wouldn't reveal any of the information, saying that he preferred to wait until he could confirm the facts. He said a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation of the incident, which began Wednesday, would probably take a few more days.

"We do have people out there on the ground who will continue to follow this up with our Afghanistan counterparts to get to the truth," McKiernan said. He added: "It is certainly a technique of the Taliban and other insurgent groups to claim civilian casualties at every event, so we've just got to do the right investigation on this."

( Click here to hear Gen. McKiernan's remarks )

=snip=

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/06/world/main499...