U.S. army admits killing Afghan civilians

Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of violence(AFP Photo)

April 16, 2007

U.S. occupation forces killed or wounded at least 47 innocent Afghan civilians, including children, women and elderly villagers, after a bomb attack last month on a U.S. convoy in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a preliminary U.S. military investigation found.

Quoting the U.S. commander who ordered the probe, The Washington Post reported that there was no evidence that the marines present at the blast scene came under small-arms fire after the bombing, dismissing the soldiers’ initial reports.

"My investigating officer believes those folks (Afghans) were innocent … We were unable to find evidence that those were fighters," Major General Frank H. Kearney was quoted as saying.
The marines opened fire indiscriminately following the attack on their convoy on March 4. They killed at least 12 civilians and wounded more than 33 others, The Post said.

The dead included a one-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl, three women and elderly villagers, according to a report by the Afghan Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

Senior military officials told The New York Times that the army is now exploring possible criminal charges against the marines.

“Indiscriminate force”

The findings of the U.S. investigation are similar to those of the Afghan Human Rights Commission, which said that the soldiers’ actions “constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian standards.”

"In failing to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets, the U.S. Marine Corps Special Forces employed indiscriminate force," AHRC said in a report.

"It was an illegal action," a 45-year-old car driver, who survived the U.S. attack, told the Times. He recalled how U.S. soldiers sprayed his car with hundreds of bullets and killed his 80-year-old father, 75-year-old uncle and his teenage nephew.

Another sixteen-year-old girl, identified as Yadwaro, was shot dead by U.S. forces while returning home from her family’s farmhouse with a bundle of grass.

Yadwaro's father-in-law said the girl was shot in the back and fell dead across the threshold. "They committed a great cruelty; they should be punished," he said bitterly.

Some of the families said they could not recognize their relatives because they were shot beyond recognition.

AHRC Deputy Director Nader Nadery said the shootings are not unprecedented. "This is not an isolated case” he said.

Last may, more than 76 Afghans, many believed to be civilians, were killed in U.S. air strikes on a village in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan civilians “main victims”

Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of attacks by rebels and occupation forces in the past 15 months, global watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Monday.

In the report, titled “The Human Cost”, HRW accused both sides of committing war crimes.

The New York-based group strongly denounced attacks by the Taliban and other anti-government forces that it said claimed the lives of more than 700 Afghan civilians since the beginning of 2006.

"Even when they’re aiming at military targets, their attacks are often so indiscriminate that Afghan civilians end up as the main victims," HRW terrorism and counter-terrorism director Joanne Mariner said in the report.

Mariner said that 2006 was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the 2001 U.S. invasion of the country, with at least 669 civilians killed in more than 350 documented attacks, most of which “appear to have been intentionally launched at civilians or civilian objects."

At least 52 civilians were also killed in rebel attacks in the first two months of 2007, the report said, adding that rebels regularly attack military targets, either U.S.-led occupation forces or the Afghan army and police, located in densely-populated areas.

Human Rights Watch also said that the Taliban has intensified targeted attacks against doctors, journalists, aid workers, religious leaders and government employees, often after accusing them of spying. At least 177 civilians were killed in such assassinations last year, it said.

Occupation forces “violate laws of war”

HRW also pointed to civilian casualties caused by occupation forces, saying 230 civilians were killed in U.S.-led or Nato operations in 2006, stressing that some of these attacks “appear to have violated the laws of war."

"There is no evidence that coalition forces intentionally target civilians, but in a number of cases international forces have conducted indiscriminate attacks or failed to take adequate precautions to prevent harm to civilians," it said.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has about 37,000 troops in Afghanistan, while the U.S. has some 12,000 soldiers.

In latest violence, a bomb blast killed more than 10 Afghan policemen on Monday in the northeastern city of Kunduz.

On Sunday, four private security guards were blown up in the southern city of Kandahar and on Saturday seven policemen died near the border with Pakistan in Khost province.

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