Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
March 15, 2009
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - A helicopter-borne special-operations mission by U.S. troops and Afghan forces killed five people early yesterday in a province south of Kabul, sparking a protest from villagers who said the victims were civilians.
The U.S. military said that the combined forces called for suspects in a house to surrender during the overnight raid, but that militants opened fire, forcing the joint forces to fire back. It said the mission targeted the leader of a roadside bomb-making cell.
However, a spokesman for the governor of Logar province said a government delegation traveled to the site and confirmed that five civilians had been killed.
Angry villagers gathered in protest near a government compound later yesterday, and police opened fire on them to prevent them from storming the building, governor's spokesman Den Mohammad Darwesh said. Two people were wounded, he said.
U.S. spokesman Col. Greg Julian denied that any civilians were killed in the mission.
"They were five armed militants that fired on a joint force . . . when they went in to get a targeted individual," Julian said. "They called them out when they arrived, and these guys came out shooting and were killed in the process."
The combined forces found grenades and other weapons during a search of the compound, a U.S. statement said.
Discerning who is and is not a civilian has long been difficult in the Afghan conflict. Militants do not wear uniforms. Many civilians own guns and will fire them when foreign troops enter their villages at night.
As well, local Afghan officials have been known to falsely claim that civilians were killed in an operation, either under pressure from militants or in hopes that villagers can claim payments from the U.S. or Afghan government. U.S. officials, however, have also been slow to acknowledge when U.S. troops have killed Afghan civilians in past instances.
The fact that Afghan special forces were on the raid is a significant step that helps insulate the U.S. military somewhat against charges of killing civilians. Afghan troops typically have not taken part in such operations in the past.
In other violence, Britain's Defense Ministry said that a British soldier died yesterday in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier was the 150th member of British forces to die in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the ministry said.
March 15, 2009
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - A helicopter-borne special-operations mission by U.S. troops and Afghan forces killed five people early yesterday in a province south of Kabul, sparking a protest from villagers who said the victims were civilians.
The U.S. military said that the combined forces called for suspects in a house to surrender during the overnight raid, but that militants opened fire, forcing the joint forces to fire back. It said the mission targeted the leader of a roadside bomb-making cell.
However, a spokesman for the governor of Logar province said a government delegation traveled to the site and confirmed that five civilians had been killed.
Angry villagers gathered in protest near a government compound later yesterday, and police opened fire on them to prevent them from storming the building, governor's spokesman Den Mohammad Darwesh said. Two people were wounded, he said.
U.S. spokesman Col. Greg Julian denied that any civilians were killed in the mission.
"They were five armed militants that fired on a joint force . . . when they went in to get a targeted individual," Julian said. "They called them out when they arrived, and these guys came out shooting and were killed in the process."
The combined forces found grenades and other weapons during a search of the compound, a U.S. statement said.
Discerning who is and is not a civilian has long been difficult in the Afghan conflict. Militants do not wear uniforms. Many civilians own guns and will fire them when foreign troops enter their villages at night.
As well, local Afghan officials have been known to falsely claim that civilians were killed in an operation, either under pressure from militants or in hopes that villagers can claim payments from the U.S. or Afghan government. U.S. officials, however, have also been slow to acknowledge when U.S. troops have killed Afghan civilians in past instances.
The fact that Afghan special forces were on the raid is a significant step that helps insulate the U.S. military somewhat against charges of killing civilians. Afghan troops typically have not taken part in such operations in the past.
In other violence, Britain's Defense Ministry said that a British soldier died yesterday in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier was the 150th member of British forces to die in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the ministry said.