Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 11, 2007
Pg. 18
By Carlotta Gall
HERAT, Afghanistan, May 10 — The toll of civilians killed in bombing by coalition forces on Tuesday night was much higher than the official figure of 21, and may be as high as 50 or even 80, residents reached by telephone said Thursday.
The tally differed from that given by a government administrator of the Sangin region, Ezatullah, who uses only one name. He said he had spent four to five hours in the village of Sarwan Qala on Thursday and said the civilian death toll remained 21. Some Taliban were also killed in the bombing, he said, but he did not specify how many.
The United States military has stuck with its original news statement, which said that it had called in the airstrikes on Taliban insurgents after a heavy 16-hour battle and destroyed three militant compounds.
But residents of the area, some of whom said they had also visited the village and helped bury the dead, said three houses were destroyed and put the number of dead variously at 56, 60 and 80.
On Wednesday, villagers brought the bodies of 21 people, mostly women and children, to the Sangin district center to show them to government officials and NATO troops there.
Hajji Mahmud, a shopkeeper who lives near Sarwan Qala, said he was one of those who brought the bodies and said 56 people had been killed, most of them women and children.
“Three houses were completely destroyed,” he said in a telephone interview. “One of the houses belonged to Faizullah. The family of seven is dead, the whole family.”
“Still now they are digging out bodies from the rubble,” he said.
A resident of the bombed village, Abdul Nasir, who was away from the village on Tuesday night, said more than 60 people had been killed and many more wounded.
“It was around 4 p.m. when the foreign vehicles came through on the main road,” he said. “The Taliban shot at them and they turned back. Then airplanes came and bombed the village at 10 p.m.,” he said. The Taliban were in the village during the day but left later and were not in the village at the time of the bombing, he said.
Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, confirmed that there were civilian casualties when American forces called in the airstrike after being ambushed “by a far superior force.”
“It does appear there were civilian casualties — exactly what caused them, we’re working our way through all that,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio, without specifying the number of civilian dead. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed that Taliban fighters had fired on the military convoy but said they had left the village long before the bombing. He denied that any Taliban were killed in the airstrikes.
In an earlier telephone text message, he had warned, “We deeply mourn the death of civilians and soon we will take revenge for them.”
Ezatullah blamed the Taliban for drawing fire on the village. “This is the fault of the Taliban, and they are using civilian houses to fight from,” he said.
He said he had warned the villagers of Sarwan Qala not to allow the Taliban back in their village. “I told them they are here to destroy your village and women and children, and the people promised me they would not let them back,” he said.
The heavy civilian cost of the fighting has caused friction between the Taliban and local villagers, and villagers had pursued the Taliban commander who led the ambush, Wali Mahmud, to a village called Heratian and had killed him, Ezatullah said.
The shopkeeper Hajji Mahmud said he had also heard a separate report that Taliban fighters came to a village, Khangan, next to Sarwan Qala, on Wednesday night with the intention of attacking foreign troops, and the people sent a group of tribal elders to ask them not to attack because the village would likely be bombed.
There was an argument and the leader of the elders killed the Taliban commander and two of his bodyguards, he said, and had now fled the area.
May 11, 2007
Pg. 18
By Carlotta Gall
HERAT, Afghanistan, May 10 — The toll of civilians killed in bombing by coalition forces on Tuesday night was much higher than the official figure of 21, and may be as high as 50 or even 80, residents reached by telephone said Thursday.
The tally differed from that given by a government administrator of the Sangin region, Ezatullah, who uses only one name. He said he had spent four to five hours in the village of Sarwan Qala on Thursday and said the civilian death toll remained 21. Some Taliban were also killed in the bombing, he said, but he did not specify how many.
The United States military has stuck with its original news statement, which said that it had called in the airstrikes on Taliban insurgents after a heavy 16-hour battle and destroyed three militant compounds.
But residents of the area, some of whom said they had also visited the village and helped bury the dead, said three houses were destroyed and put the number of dead variously at 56, 60 and 80.
On Wednesday, villagers brought the bodies of 21 people, mostly women and children, to the Sangin district center to show them to government officials and NATO troops there.
Hajji Mahmud, a shopkeeper who lives near Sarwan Qala, said he was one of those who brought the bodies and said 56 people had been killed, most of them women and children.
“Three houses were completely destroyed,” he said in a telephone interview. “One of the houses belonged to Faizullah. The family of seven is dead, the whole family.”
“Still now they are digging out bodies from the rubble,” he said.
A resident of the bombed village, Abdul Nasir, who was away from the village on Tuesday night, said more than 60 people had been killed and many more wounded.
“It was around 4 p.m. when the foreign vehicles came through on the main road,” he said. “The Taliban shot at them and they turned back. Then airplanes came and bombed the village at 10 p.m.,” he said. The Taliban were in the village during the day but left later and were not in the village at the time of the bombing, he said.
Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, confirmed that there were civilian casualties when American forces called in the airstrike after being ambushed “by a far superior force.”
“It does appear there were civilian casualties — exactly what caused them, we’re working our way through all that,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio, without specifying the number of civilian dead. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed that Taliban fighters had fired on the military convoy but said they had left the village long before the bombing. He denied that any Taliban were killed in the airstrikes.
In an earlier telephone text message, he had warned, “We deeply mourn the death of civilians and soon we will take revenge for them.”
Ezatullah blamed the Taliban for drawing fire on the village. “This is the fault of the Taliban, and they are using civilian houses to fight from,” he said.
He said he had warned the villagers of Sarwan Qala not to allow the Taliban back in their village. “I told them they are here to destroy your village and women and children, and the people promised me they would not let them back,” he said.
The heavy civilian cost of the fighting has caused friction between the Taliban and local villagers, and villagers had pursued the Taliban commander who led the ambush, Wali Mahmud, to a village called Heratian and had killed him, Ezatullah said.
The shopkeeper Hajji Mahmud said he had also heard a separate report that Taliban fighters came to a village, Khangan, next to Sarwan Qala, on Wednesday night with the intention of attacking foreign troops, and the people sent a group of tribal elders to ask them not to attack because the village would likely be bombed.
There was an argument and the leader of the elders killed the Taliban commander and two of his bodyguards, he said, and had now fled the area.