10 Die in Mistaken Afghan Firefight

[maddezmom]

Source: NYTimes

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least nine Afghan police officers and a civilian were killed early Thursday in a firefight between American forces and the officers in Ghazni Province, just south of the capital, local officials said.

The American forces were searching houses in a village on the outskirts of Ghazni town and blew open the gates of a house, according to local Afghan officials. District police officers heard the explosion and rushed to the scene, suspecting that the Taliban were in the area, but were themselves mistaken for Taliban and shot by the American soldiers, the officials said. Aircraft supporting the operation fired on one of the police cars.

The killings set off protests in the town on Thursday afternoon, and demonstrators blocked the main highway and prevented a government delegation from reaching the town from a nearby airfield, local officials said.

“Another big cruelty was made by American forces this morning,” said Khial Muhammad Hussaini, a member of Parliament from the province who was among the elders and legislators who had traveled to the town to try to calm people and persuade them to reopen the highway.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/world/asia/25afghan.html?ref=world

[unhappycamper]

1. The Army Times mentioned the protests this morning.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x10366

[xchrom]

2. a very sad -- but also perfect example of how the u.s. under bushco

has just bungled every step.

[SpiralHawk]

4. That's what you get with an AWOL clown pretending to be Commander in Chief

a clown who is backed up by a VP like Cheney, with Five Military Deferments, and a corporate media propaganda corps of Draft Dodgers like O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Hannity...

[ManiacJoe]

6. You all are trying to make Bush sound special here.

I hate to burst your bubble, but this type of thing has happen under every previous president, Dem and Rep.

Urban combat is ugly and messy. This is why the military hates doing it.

[tabasco]

9. Lemme give you a clue.

Bush, the Commander in Chief, decided to make Afghanistan a secondary effort because he wanted to get on top of the Iraqi oil.

Bush let Bin laden get away at Tora Bora because there were no US forces to screen the Pakistan border. Bush's brilliant plan was to let the Pakistanis "guard the border." Corporate profits were more important to Bush than finishing the job in Afghanistan. So you bet your ass he is responsible for the unraveling clusterfuck in Afghanistan. Bush decided to get into Iraq before finishing the job in Afghanistan. The result is over-stressed units and a high number of fuck-ups.

Have you ever been in urban combat? I have. This unit fucked up big time. If they didn't trust the local police with prior information, they should have sent a platoon to notify and secure the local police station before the assault. But they probably didn't have enough men to do this, thanks to Bush.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Will the real Al-Qaida please wear your uniforms?

We want to prevent these tragedies in the future.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[Fabio]

5. From a tactical point of view, when fighting a prolongued

counter-insurgency on foreign soil, it's not surprising that this happens frequently -- especially to troops not trained for years in counter-insurgency (like SF). It doesn't necessarily mean poor judgments were made by the American troops - as in the Pat Tilman case. Knowing an strangers true identity or intentions is very hard to establish for the american warfighter in that region, and it sounds like the US forces didnt initiate the contact, but were returning fire. It's a totally different set of rules.

Regardless, what this incident does reinforce is the folly of the policy of having tens of thousands of heavily armed infantry soldiers in a middle eastern country. War is always a pandora's box, and our president just is/wasnt wise enough to understand consequences (no surprise given his upbringing and general attitude towards others).

[pinniped]

7. Every FN time there are so-called accidents and mistakes, the Afghanis and Iraqis....

end up in wooden boxes.

[ManiacJoe]

8. That should not surprise you.

Our (US and other western countries) troops are better shots due to better training.

What we really need to be working on are the improvements in friend/foe identification.

[Javaman]

10. "Whoops! you mean this wasn't the 10 am shoot out? Oh man, my bad." nt