Air strike kills civilians in Afghanistan

by Bronwen Roberts –

Wed May 20, 2009, 7:17 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

NATO air strikes sparked fresh controversy in Afghanistan on Wednesday as NATO said a bombing killed eight civilians and the US military estimated that up to 30 villagers died in an attack this month.

The announcements came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded an end to air strikes by foreign forces helping his government fight the Taliban resistance to the NATO occupation forces, because of the growing and increasingly controversial civilian death toll.

NATO soldiers on patrol in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday came under attack from about 25 insurgents, the alliance's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

"Finding it difficult to extract themselves from this dangerous situation, NATO ISAF troops resorted to calling for close air support," it said.

A plane dropped a bomb. "Tragically, it is believed that eight civilians were killed as a result of the air strike," it said.

The level of civilian casualties at the hands of international forces deployed to Afghanistan to tackle the (Taliban resistance) threat is a deeply sensitive issue that has sparked violent demonstrations and calls for the foreign troops to leave.

The Afghan government says 140 civilians, including about 95 children and teenagers, were killed this month in what may be the deadliest such incident since the 2001 invasion that drove the Taliban from government.

Afghan and foreign troops called in the strikes while engaged in heavy fighting in the southwestern province of Farah on May 4-5.

The US military previously said it could only confirm that "a number" of people were killed, charging that all the bodies had been buried before its investigators arrived at the scene of the battle in the Bala Buluk area.

But a new and ongoing investigation by US Central Command estimated at least 20 to 30 civilians may have been killed as well as 60-65 Taliban, the military said in a statement released in Kabul on Wednesday.

Investigators reviewed video from aircraft scrambled to the fight and audio recordings of conversations between a ground commander and air crew, it said.

"A review of the physical evidence is inconclusive in determining the exact number of civilian and (Taliban) casualties," the statement added.

Tensions over non-combatant deaths peaked last August when civilians were killed in US air strikes in the western province of Herat, which adjoins Farah.

Afghan and UN teams said around 90 civilians were killed; the US military said 33 civilians and 22 militants died.

NATO reports heavy Afghanistan fighting

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 20, 2009 (UPI) --

NATO commanders Wednesday said international coalition troops continued to clash with Afghan militants in a southern insurgent stronghold.

The intense fighting had been going on for the past few days in the Marjah region of Helmand province, an area where both militant fighters and drug traffickers have been operating, CNN reported.

The International Security Assistance Force said more U.S. troops were moving into the area and that civilians should get out of the way.

"In doing so they will not be mistaken for insurgents or caught up amongst insurgents whose cowardly tactics see them hiding in the civilian population, thereby causing the loss of innocent lives," ISAF said in a written statement.

The force said airstrikes Tuesday claimed the lives of eight civilians in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah who had been forced to act as human shields by militants.

Meanwhile, a U.S. civilian and a member of the coalition forces were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb was detonated as their convoy traveled between Kabul and Bagram.

==========================

alemarah1.org reported the following headlines, which mention scores of deaths among NATO and Afghani forces. There's no way to verify the accuracy of these reports.