UPDATED ON:
Sunday, August 24, 2008
06:41 Mecca time, 03:41 GMT
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA
Civilian deaths anger Afghans
Protesters chanted anti-US slogans at Afghan soldiers as they arrived in the area [Reuters]

Hundreds of Afghans have staged a protest in the Shindand district in western Afghanistan after scores of people were reportedly killed in an raid by US-led forces.

The Afghan interior ministry has said that at least 76 civilians died in Thursday's attack, most of them women and children.

Hundreds of people shouted anti-US slogans at Afghan soldiers as they arrived in the Azizabad area of Shindand district to bring aid to the families of the victims, witnesses said on Saturday.

"People didn't accept the aid and started throwing stones at the soldiers saying the Afghan army is our enemy, we dont want anything from our enemies," Shah Nawaz, a village elder, told the Reuters news agency.

"We will continue our demonstration until the international community listen to us and bring those who carried out yesterday's attack to justice."

Soldiers fired into the air to disperse the crowd and at least two people were wounded, according to police. The troops were forced back to their compound.

Ground troops

Daoud Sultanzoy, an Afghan MP, told Al Jazeera that Nato should not rely on air attacks when the Taliban are in villages and civilian areas.

"With either good or bad intelligence, the most important lesson to learn from this is that we need to rely more on ground troops," he said.

"Since Nato and the coalition don't have these troops, the reliance on air support is greater. So, if they can increase their ground operations it would probably alleviate some of these problems."

"[The Taliban] don't have offices," he said. "This is a civilian house. And regretfully, when a bombing takes place - an aerial bombing, or any kind of smart bombing - definitely, you will have these kind of regretful casualities."

The United Nations says that 255 of the almost 700 civilian deaths in fighting in Afghanistan this year have been caused by Afghan and US-led international troops.

The air assault on Wednesday that caused the deaths were called in to respond to an attack on troops operating in Laghman province, which adjoins the Sarobi area, where 10 French soldiers died earlier in the week, an official for the US-led forces said.

'Strong' condemnation

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, condemned the civilian deaths on Saturday and said his government would soon take "necessary measures" to prevent further civilian casualties.

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemns the unco-ordinated air strike by coalition forces in Shindand district of Herat province which resulted in the death of at least 70 people including women and children," his office said in a statement.

Karzai recently criticised air raids by the US and Nato-led forces for causing many civilian casualties and failing to win the war against the Taliban.

Rumi Nielson-Green, a US military spokeswoman, said that the raid on Thursday was led by Afghan commandos with support from US-led forces.

Initial reports from the US military said that 30 suspected Taliban fighters had been killed, but in Saturday Nielson-Green acknowledged that five civilians, two women and three children, were among the dead.

A statement from US forces at the military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, said an investigation had been launched.

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 9
 
Ahab
Afghanistan
24/08/2008
The trigger white empire is having a filed day in Afghanistan mowing down children, women and civilians. Like Palestine so too in Afghanistan and Iraq. The racist cabal is out to destroy peace and normal life throughout the world!

Shafiq
Bangladesh
24/08/2008
Puppet Karzai
Karzai is a US puppet who has no say in what goes on in Afghanistan. He cannot do anything to protect the population from the invaders. The only solution is for the whole population to take arms against the invaders and expel them from their country.

Terry
New Zealand (Aotearoa)
24/08/2008
Its murder
How long must we tolerate our elected leaders condoning this gutless homicide of innocent civilians,all for control of oil pipelines that they've lost to Russia anyway. The lunatics have most definitely taken over the asylum,since circa 2000.

Amvet
Afghanistan
24/08/2008
Killing civilians
The advantage of murder using modern machines such as airplanes is that the murders can always claim ignorance and promise to investigate. It worked for decades for the Israelis and for the israeli-clones, the Americans. The only solution is to get them out of other people“s countries. Amvet

william
Afghanistan
24/08/2008
Tom: "Are they afraid to come out of their holes?"
How can these men avenge the deaths of their families if they die with them in the NATO airstrikes?

Saad
United Kingdom
24/08/2008
Civilian deaths anger Afghans
No wonder why resistense fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq kills muslim security forces. These people makes them legal and give them free hand in killing civilians. If President Karazie send his forces to an operation in which lots of NATO forces are killed, would he be tried by NATO? He be labeled as terrorist and killed. Now does he have power to even name those people in NATO who ordered these operations in which civilians are killed? No he has no power, therefore he is a PUPPET

Tom
Afghanistan
24/08/2008
Why is always only "women and children" killed in attacks? Are there no men? Could it be they are hiding in caves like hyenas? Are they afraid to come out of their holes, but yet they send out their families to die? They are worms.

Faruk Ishaq Bello
Nigeria
24/08/2008
Open hypocrisy
It si hypocretical for Karzai to condemn U.S killing in his own Mother land. the question is who support American when invading his country? Is he not the one who gave the the American the support they want so that they will put him in power? We know some Taliban actions are un Islamic sometimes. BUT Whatever american deeds in that country Karzai and his supporters have to take the blame.

in the media
United States
13/09/2008
deaths in Afghan
'killing wemon and children' is a tie into drama. Drama sells to all across the world. Mistakes happen... it is sad that innocent die, but we are at war. there isn't one uncorrupt government anywhere in the world. I agree, the Afghan fighters and Iraqi fighters need to crawl out of their holes and stop fighting like cowards or just stop fighting period... it isn't about the oil anymore! Its a bad situation. Afghan, Iraq stop fighting...U.S. WILL leave!

 
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