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AFGHANISTAN: Scores of civilians killed in air strikes, say officials and elders
KABUL, 26 October 2006 (IRIN) - Dozens of civilians have been killed during NATO air strikes in the insurgency-ravaged southern province of Kandahar, officials and local tribal elders said on Thursday.
Atta Mohammad, 40, from Zangawat village, which was bombed during the NATO air strikes on Tuesday, was waiting in front of the surgical ward of Kandahar’s Mirwais hospital to visit relatives.
“[Some] 62 of our villagers have been killed and buried, including women and children, while another 12 were injured during the air strikes,” Mohammad said.
“There are even households which have lost 20 to 22 of their family members in these air strikes. Just yesterday we recovered some of the dead bodies trapped under the ruins using a tractor while one of our children remains missing,” Mohammad explained.
Kandahar provincial council member Bismallah Afghanmal placed the number of fatalities much higher, saying around 90 civilians had been killed in fighting and air strikes.
“Killing of innocent civilians cannot solve problems but will instead further hatred among ordinary people towards the government, resulting in more disillusionment,” Afghanmal warned.
“Government and NATO forces asked displaced people last month to go back to their homes and said that there was no threat from the Taliban. But unfortunately again they were bombed and killed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Haji Agha Lalai, tribal elder in Panjwayi district and Kandahar provincial council member, accused the Taliban of using civilians as shields against NATO and government forces in the area.
“The Taliban are still present in the area and are mainly responsible for these killings because they are always taking positions in the homes of innocent civilians,” Lalai claimed.
Lalai said nearly 60 people had been killed in Tuesday’s air strikes in Panjwayi district.
Meanwhile, NATO officials in the Afghan capital Kabul reported that alliance forces on Tuesday had killed 48 Taliban insurgents during heavy fighting in the area and had received credible reports that several civilians had been killed in the operation.
“Our forces were engaged in development efforts when they were attacked by insurgents in the area [Panjwayi],” Maj Luke Knittig, a NATO spokesman, told IRIN in Kabul.
Knittig said the number of civilian casualties remained unclear, but that the Afghan defence ministry was investigating the incident.
The western alliance reported that its forces had killed more than 500 suspected militants in September in a massive counter-insurgency operation entitled "Operation Medusa" in Panjwayi and Zhari districts.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Thursday urged a speedy and thorough investigation into what happened on Tuesday.
"UNAMA is very concerned by reports that a great number of civilians may have died during the conduct of military operations," the organization said in a statement in Kabul.
"The safety and welfare of civilians must always come first and any civilian casualties are unacceptable, without exception."
Ravaged by nearly three decades of brutal civil war, Afghanistan has this year seen its bloodiest violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led operation in late 2001. The militants have regrouped mainly in southern Afghanistan and are now waging a deadly insurgency against the US-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
More than 3,000 people - mainly militants - have been killed this year alone, but the numbers of dead also include many civilians and over 150 foreign soldiers.
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