Marjah residents blame wounds on foreign troops

[unhappycamper]

Marjah residents blame wounds on foreign troops
By Kathy Gannon - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 24, 2010 16:13:47 EST

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — Taxis turned into ambulances ferry wounded civilians out of the combat zone in southern Afghanistan, but one man’s long trip to a hospital began with a two-hour wheelbarrow ride.

Mohammad’s legs were peppered with shrapnel when a bomb exploded nearby. His brother found him unconscious and lifted him into the only thing he could find, pushing him in the wheelbarrow before he flagged a taxi.

Mohammad, who is from the Nad Ali district around Marjah, is one of 40 civilians treated at Emergency Hospital in Lashkar Gah since the Afghan-NATO offensive in Marjah began Feb. 13. Both of his legs were in casts. Steel pins protruded from his right leg.

Most of the wounded civilians recuperating at the whitewashed Italian-run hospital said their injuries were caused by “the foreign soldiers” — a claim that does not bode well for international and Afghan forces who are trying to get residents to renounce the Taliban and embrace the Afghan government.

Bernard Metraux, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Helmand province, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that as many as 40,000 people trapped by fighting in and around Marjah have little to no access to medical care.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/ap_afghanistan_marjah_residents_022410/



unhappycamper comment: :wtf:

[MadHound]

1. The truth hurts,

The truth is these people would be alive and whole if it wasn't for the presence of our troops. Time to bring them home and end this madness.

[Robb]

2. Many of them would be, probably.