Shooting War Getting A Grip Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

H14802

Headlines : "War on Terror"
Summary:

According to Afghan elders and villagers 133 civilians have been killed in recent airstrikes. Both the Afghan government and NATO throw their hands up in a “Maybe, Maybe Not” kind of way.

A picture emerges of an alien air force zooming in, dropping their bombs and hightailing it as fast as several million dollars worth of plane can shift.

It is a very problematic information environment, says the local UN spokesman.

In other words, they don’t know what they are doing.

[Posted By Watson]
By Unattributed
Republished from AP via Washington Post
No comment from NATO

Afghan elders said Saturday that 108 civilians were killed this week in a bombing campaign in western Afghanistan, and villagers in the northeast said 25 Afghans died in airstrikes.

U.S. and NATO leaders, however, said they had no information to substantiate the allegations.

Government officials who reported the deaths Saturday also could not confirm the claims, which came from dangerous and remote regions inaccessible to journalists and other independent researchers.

“It is a very problematic information environment,” said Adrian Edwards, the U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan.

Edwards said the reliability of government reports is crucial to addressing the very real problem of civilian casualties. The United Nations also has not been able to confirm the most recent casualty claims.

[end excerpt]
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Watson

Posted by Watson

RECENT COMMENTS

Douchebag of the week goes to Lt Col Rob Pollack:

Lt. Col. Rob Pollack, a U.S. officer at the main American base in Bagram, said Taliban militants have been told to fight in civilian areas because civilian deaths caused by U.S. or NATO forces provide a propaganda victory.

“In the south, villagers are being told by the Taliban that if they do not call in and report civilian casualties, they will be punished,” said Pollack, who said payments to the families of Afghans killed or wounded in fighting could also be fueling the claims.

Pollack said in a recent battle Taliban militants pulled civilians into a trench they were fighting from, leading to some Afghan deaths. The U.N.‘s Edwards said the Taliban have “repeatedly used civilians to achieve their aims.”

Szamko @ 07/09/07 11:14:14
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