Afghan gov't: NATO op killed 65 civilians

[Alamuti Lotus]

Source: AP

KABUL, Afghanistan – Sixty-five civilians, including 40 children, were killed in a NATO assault on insurgents in eastern Afghanistan earlier this month, according to findings of an Afghan government investigation released Sunday.

Tribal leaders had alleged that dozens of civilians were killed in the operation in Kunar province, which involved rocket and air strikes, but NATO has not confirmed any civilian deaths.

The incident inflamed tensions between the Afghan government and NATO forces, and both sides opened investigations.

NATO has said that video of Kunar operations on Feb. 17 — the main event of more than three days of fighting — showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents, not civilians.

However, the Afghan team investigating the incident found that 65 civilians had been killed, including 40 children age 13 and under, said Shahzada Masoud, one of the investigators. The group presented its findings Sunday to President Hamid Karzai.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110227/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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Perhaps there should be a no-fly zone imposed over Afghanistan to prevent these massacres

[JohnyCanuck]

1. I guess there is no real cause to wonder

why the Afghan army troops would turn on their supposed NATO/US "liberators" and allies from time to time.

You'd never know it from Canadian mainstream media coverage of the war in Afghanistan, of course, but Spiegel Online International reported yesterday that German troops in that country are in a state of near revolt against their commanders.

The reason? The danger they face training Afghan soldiers who, in the words of one German trooper quoted by the magazine, "consider us to be infidels who don't belong in their country."

Said another Bundeswehr soldier quoted by the English-language online edition of the German newsmagazine: "One doesn't know anymore if they will suddenly turn their weapons on you."

The reason for this angst is the attack last Friday by an Afghan soldier being trained by the Germans that killed three Bundeswehr soldiers and injured six others, some of them critically. The 26-year-old Afghan attacker, who Spiegel reported is believed to be a Taliban sympathizer, was killed in a hail of return fire from the Germans' comrades.

With German morale at "rock bottom," the publication said, many Germans soldiers are "now refusing to go on further patrols or missions with Afghan troops."

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2011/02/afghan-troops-stoned-infiltrated-taliban-and-likely-turn-their-t

[annm4peace]

2. Tell your Rep and Senators to bring the troops home annnnnddd

join a protest march or Rally in March. If there isn't one nearby start your own.. and take your pots and pans to bang

[David__77]

3. So where's all the outcry against the US/NATO mercenaries??

Silencio...

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. The interventionists are indeed conspicious by their absence

I have been trying to get them on board for at least a no-fly zone over occupied Afghanistan to stop the massacres from the foreign imports, but interest is nigh; all of their enthusiasm is used up in the concept of sending the splendid army mentioned above to occupy another country, since that always works out so well. In a way I wish Bush was back in office, if only so that it would be "cool" to be against these foreign occupations again.

[ixion]

4. And our tax dollars, yours and mine, helped to fund that slaughter

aren't you proud? :sarcasm: