[R-G] WWIII update - NA condemns US

[Barry Stoller]

Reuters. 28 October 2001. U.S. Goes From Hero to Villain in Afghan
Village.

GHANIKHEL -- "The Americans come here, drop their bombs on Afghanistan
and kill innocent people," an Afghan cleric says.

These were not the words of the ruling Taliban militia, which has been
under attack from the United States and its allies for three weeks and
which accuses the Western coalition of inflicting heavy civilian
casualties.

They were spoken instead by a Muslim holy man in the opposition-held
village of Ghanikhel, which lies close to the front line of fighting
north of Kabul and which was hit by a stray allied bomb Saturday
afternoon.

With that blast, and the death of a woman, the United States has gone
from hero, hitting at the hated Taliban, to villain, taking innocent
lives out of carelessness.

Kamaruddin was addressing the funeral Sunday of Kukugul, the woman who
died when her house was hit. A large pile of dust-covered rubble and
splintered wooden beams was all that was left of the building.

She was the first reported civilian casualty in opposition- held
territory since Western warplanes began to strike Taliban frontline
targets north of the capital Kabul.

"We cannot condone this, although we ourselves are guilty," Kamaruddin
shouted, as around 100 men crouched in the morning sun in the bleak
cemetery just outside the village.

"We were the ones to invite them (the United States) here."

A few hundred meters (yards) away at the scene of the explosion,
Muhammad Zamon explained how Kukugul was helping her son prepare for his
wedding, which was to have been held in the next few days.

Zamon said 10 people were also injured in the blast, six of them
children.

"We are not against the United States doing what they are doing, but
they must be sure that they know where the opposition is and where the
Taliban is."

Opposition commanders have been saying for days that the risk is high of
hitting friendly targets when aiming for Taliban positions so close to
the front.

The task has become even more difficult with Taliban fighters pushing
forward to avoid being hit.
Western warplanes generally release their ammunition from high in the
sky to avoid the Taliban's aging air defenses.

Isatullah, the 35-year-old opposition commander in Ghanikhel, urged the
United States and other Western states waging war on the Taliban to be
cautious.

"Today it is Ghanikhel, tomorrow it will be somewhere else in Kapisa and
the day after that Charikar," he said, referring to opposition-held
towns and provinces.

"They must know exactly where they are bombing."

He said other villagers from Taliban-held territory crossed over to
Ghanikhel Saturday after their village was also hit by U.S.-led air
attacks. They told him two children had been killed.

Sunday morning, the skies above Ghanikhel were silent.

In the Kabul strike, victims included eight members of a family who were
eating breakfast, Reuters news agency reported.

"What shall I do now? Look at their savageness. They killed all of my
children and husband," said the mother of the family.

The bomb hit a residential area of Kabul, near a hill on which there is
an anti-aircraft gun.

Washington has so far said nothing about the apparent mistakes.

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Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
with continuing coverage of WWIII