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Afghanistan

US Military, Afghan President at Odds Over Airstrike Deaths

2008-08-24

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan that some Afghan officials say killed more than 70 civilians on Thursday. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that the U.S. military disputes the number of civilian casualties and insists the operation was a successful strike against a wanted Taliban commander. President Hamid Karzai's office issued a statement Saturday strongly condemning what it called a "unilateral operation of Coalition Forces" in the Shindand district of Herat Province. The statement said local political and security officials reported at least 70 people, including women and children were killed in the airstrike. The U.S. military disputes the civilian casualty figures and says troops called for airstrikes after a group of wanted militants fired on a joint patrol of coalition and Afghan forces. U.S. coalition spokesman, First Lieutenant Nathan Perry, told VOA the troops were able to search the compound following the battle to confirm the casualty figures. He says five civilians, who were believed to be related to the militants, were among the 30 people killed in the strike. "There was already a battlefield assessment of this operation," said the spokesman. "We want to point out that this was an Afghan army operation. Coalition troops were in support of the Afghan operation. And after the operation, those troops on the ground were able to do a battlefield assessment. Not only did they confirm that they killed 25 militants, they also confirmed the main target that they were in pursuit of." The spokesman said despite the initial battlefield assessment, U.S.-led coalition forces have launched an investigation into the airstrike. Afghan officials have also called for an investigation. Civilians deaths from U.S. airstrikes are a contentious issue in Afghanistan and in recent months the Afghan government has been more assertive in publicly rebuking foreign allied forces for civilian casualties. President Karzai said Saturday that so far, Afghan efforts to stop civilian casualties have not had "desired outcomes." The president said the government will soon announce new initiatives for avoiding civilian deaths. In the village in Herat where Thursday's airstrike occurred, hundreds of locals protested Saturday after rejecting offers of food and other aid from Afghan military troops. Local media reports said some of the protesters turned violent and soldiers fired on the crowd, injuring several people.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan violence leaves 35 dead

2008-08-13

A suspected US missile strike has killed 10 militants at a training camp in a Pakistani tribal area, while 25 people died in fresh clashes near the Afghan border, officials said. The violence in the ethnic Pashtun tribal regions along the mountainous frontier comes amid mounting US pressure for Islamabad to tackle rebels who are launching attacks on international forces in Afghanistan. Four missiles hit the Islamist camp in the troubled South Waziristan region, which was run by a militant from the Hezb-i-Islami group of wanted Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, security officials said. "At least 10 militants were killed in the strikes" late Tuesday, a senior Pakistani security official said. "There were reports about the presence of Arab, Turkmen and local militants." "This is their work," he added, referring to US-led coalition forces deployed across the border in Afghanistan. In Kabul, the US military said the missiles were not fired by either NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or the US-led coalition. "This is not true. We have no reports of missiles being fired into Pakistan," US-led coalition spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Perry said. The US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate pilotless drone aircraft armed with missiles, but it was not available for comment. Another security official said the camp was run by a local militant, Zanjir Wazir, who he described as the "local commander of Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan". "It is not clear whether Wazir survived the attack or not, but his brother Abdur Rehman and one of their close relatives, Abdul Salam, were killed in the strike," he added. Hekmatyar himself was not in the camp and is believed to be in Afghanistan, officials said. Hekmatyar, a former commander of the 1978-1989 anti-Soviet resistance, is involved in an insurgency against the Western-backed Government in Afghanistan. The elusive militant leader is wanted by Kabul and Washington. Witnesses said the missiles destroyed two houses close to each other and rescue workers were seen removing debris amid fears that more people could be trapped inside. Local militants cordoned off the area and journalists were not allowed access to the site. Residents said the houses were part of a militant training camp. Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar was killed in a similar missile strike in July. The Egyptian, 54, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a $US million bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months which have killed dozens of people. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani urged US President George W Bush during talks last month not to act "unilaterally" against Islamic militants in Pakistan. Mr Gilani's fledgling government opened peace talks with the Taliban earlier this year but has since launched several military operations, including an ongoing offensive in the Bajaur tribal region. At least 25 people, mostly militants, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani helicopter gunships strafed villages in Bajaur, taking the death toll from a week of fighting there to more than 180, officials and witnesses said. Residents said people were fleeing to safer places in adjoining areas but Taliban militants were erecting road blocks to prevent the exodus. Separately on Wednesday a gunman shot dead an Islamist militant leader, Haji Namdar, as he taught at a religious school in the Khyber tribal region near the north-western city of Peshawar, officials said.

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Afghanistan

Afghan police say 20 Taliban killed

2008-08-10

Twenty Taliban were killed in combat with Afghan and international security forces while a bomb destroyed a police vehicle, killing five policemen, authorities said on Saturday. A convoy of Afghan police and international soldiers was ambushed in the western province of Farah on Friday, Provincial Police Chief Khalilulah Rahmani told AFP. The forces hit back, including using air strikes. "As result 20 Taliban have been killed and 14 wounded," he said. It was not possible to confirm the toll independently. The United States-led military coalition confirmed that its soldiers had been involved but was not able to give a figure for rebel losses. "Coalition forces were attacked with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and indirect fire," Lieutenant Nathan Perry said. "Close air support was called. We have no body count for insurgents but no soldier was injured in the operation," he said. The latest in a series of bomb attacks meanwhile killed five Afghan policemen in the eastern province of Paktia on the border with Pakistan on Friday, Provincial Governor Muhammad Akram Khapelwak said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said men from his militia had carried out the attack.

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