[R-G] US bombing run kills dozens, Afghans say

[Anthony Fenton]

US bombing run kills dozens, Afghans say

By RAHIM FAIEZ and JASON STRAZIUSO – 2 hours ago

KABUL (AP) — Bombing runs called in by U.S. forces killed dozens of  
civilians taking shelter from fighting between Taliban militants and  
Afghan and international troops, Afghan officials said Tuesday. The  
U.S. promised a joint investigation.

A provincial councilman said he saw about 30 bodies, many of them  
women and children, after villages bought them to a provincial capital.

Overall death toll estimates varied widely. Villagers estimated from  
70 to well over 100 civilians may have died, according to local and  
regional officials. But no government official could confirm such a  
toll.

Civilian deaths have caused increasing friction between the Afghan and  
U.S. governments, and President Hamid Karzai has long pleaded with  
American officials to reduce the number of civilian casualties in  
their operations. Karzai meets with President Barack Obama in  
Washington on Wednesday.

The latest fighting broke out Monday soon after Taliban fighters —  
including Taliban from Pakistan and Iran — massed in Farah province in  
western Afghanistan, said Belqis Roshan, a member of Farah's  
provincial council. The provincial police chief, Abdul Ghafar, said 25  
militants and three police officers died in that battle near the  
village of Ganjabad in Bala Baluk district, a Taliban-controlled area  
near the border with Iran.

Villagers told Afghan officials that they put children, women, and  
elderly men in several housing compounds in the village of Gerani —  
about three miles to the east — to keep them safe. But villagers said  
fighter aircraft later targeted those compounds, killing a majority of  
those inside, according to Roshan and other officials.

The top U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan, Col. Greg Julian, confirmed  
that U.S. coalition forces participated in the battle. Julian said  
five wounded Afghans sought medical treatment at a military base in  
Farah.

"We offer our condolences to those affected by today's operations and  
will immediately investigate the claims to determine what happened,"  
Julian said.

Abdul Basir Khan, another member of Farah's provincial council, said  
Farah's governor had hoped to send a delegation to the bombing site  
Tuesday to investigate, but that officials decided not to go because  
of how dangerous the region was. It wasn't clear when investigators  
might reach the village.

The United Nations often takes a lead role in investigating high- 
profile civilian death cases, but the U.N. doesn't have any officials  
in Farah province.

A Western official in Kabul said Marine special operations forces —  
which fall under the U.S. coalition — had called in the airstrikes.  
The official asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized  
to release the information.

Khan said villagers brought bodies, including women and children, to  
Farah city to show the province's governor. Khan estimated that  
villagers brought about 30 bodies.

"It was difficult to count because they were in very bad shape. Some  
had no legs," Khan said.

Farah's hospital treated at least three wounded villagers, including  
an 11-year-old boy whose chest, arms and shoulders were completely  
bandaged. A girl named Shafiqa had bandages under her chin. Two of her  
toes were severed in the fighting.

"We were at home when the bombing started," she told AP Television  
News. "Seven members of my family were killed."

Khan said villagers told him more than 150 civilians had died, but he  
said he had no way to know whether that claim was true.

The issue of civilian deaths is complicated in Afghanistan.  
Journalists and human rights workers can rarely visit remote battle  
sites to verify claims of civilian casualties. U.S. officials say  
Taliban militants sometimes force villagers to lie and say civilians  
have died in coalition strikes.

But the villagers' claims on Tuesday were bolstered by the wounded at  
Farah's hospital shown on AP Television News. And Khan's account of  
several truckloads of bodies taken to Farah city added more weight to  
the claims.

Mohammad Nieem Qadderdan, the former top official in the district of  
Bala Baluk, said he saw dozens of bodies when he visited the village  
of Gerani.

"These houses that were full of children and women and elders were  
bombed by planes. It is very difficult to say how many were killed  
because nobody can count the number, it is too early," Qadderdan, who  
no longer holds a government position, told The Associated Press by  
telephone. "People are digging through rubble with shovels and hands."

Qadderdan said the civilian casualties were "worse than Azizabad," a  
reference to an August 2008 strike in a district immediately to the  
north of Bala Baluk.

An Afghan government commission found that an operation by U.S. forces  
killed 90 civilians in Azizabad, a finding backed by the U.N. The U.S.  
originally said no civilians died; a high-level investigation later  
concluded 33 civilians were killed.

After the Azizabad killings, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan,  
Gen. David McKiernan, announced a directive last September meant to  
reduce such deaths. He ordered commanders to consider breaking away  
from a fire-fight in populated areas rather than pursue militants into  
villages.

Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this  
report.