NATO airstrikes kill at least 20 Afghan civilians < br /> 2012-05-08 06:36:27 GMT+7 (ICT) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- At least twenty civilians, including five children, were killed over the weekend when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) carried out two separate airstrikes in southern and northwestern Afghanistan, local officials said on Monday.Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand governor Muhammad Gulab Mangal, said the first incident took place on late Friday evening when an ISAF helicopter targeted a militant hideout in the Sangin area of Helmand but missed and struck a home, killing a mother, her three daughters and two sons."At this point in the investigation, we are able to confirm the incident and will be formally apologizing in the next couple of days to the family," said ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Stewart Upton. "We are deeply saddened by any civilian deaths, and particularly regret incidents where civilians are killed as a result of actions by ISAF."Separately, at least fourteen civilians were believed to have been killed when ISAF carried out an airstrike in the Bala Murghab district of northwestern Badghis province on late Sunday evening. The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai also claimed civilians were killed as a result of ISAF airstrikes in Logar and Kapisa provinces, but gave no other details."According to initial operational reporting, coalition aircraft conducted a targeted strike in Badghis province that resulted in three insurgents killed. We are aware of and are looking into the reports of civilian casualties," said Lt. Col. Jimmie E. Cummings, Jr., an ISAF spokesman, regarding Sunday night's incident.Karzai strongly condemned the airstrikes and summoned ISAF Commander John R. Allen and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker to the presidential palace where he told them that coalition airstrikes in Afghan villages are 'unacceptable.' "President Karzai said if the lives of Afghans are not safe then strategic cooperation between the two countries will lose its meaning and concept," a spokesman for Karzai said in a statement.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-05-08

nice

Terrorist are defined by those whom they terrorize.

Edited May 8, 201214 yr by flying

Terrorist are defined by those who are terrorized.

I must say it is not easy to work out what the US and NATO strategy really is ?

U.S. officials confirm release of senior Taliban prisoners

Up to 20 high-level insurgent prisoners have been released from NATO custody in Afghanistan over the past two years in an effort to boost peace negotiations with the Taliban in various regions of the country, according to U.S. officials.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/07/u-s-officials-confirm-release-of-senior-taliban-prisoners/

Terrorist are defined by those who are terrorized.

I must say it is not easy to work out what the US and NATO strategy really is ?

U.S. officials confirm release of senior Taliban prisoners

Up to 20 high-level insurgent prisoners have been released from NATO custody in Afghanistan over the past two years in an effort to boost peace negotiations with the Taliban in various regions of the country, according to U.S. officials.

http://news.blogs.cn...iban-prisoners/

There is no US/NATO strategy. They give every impression of making it up as they go along, with disastrous results. Absolutely clueless.

Afghanistan is such a mess. I don't know if a strategy is possible. Sad for the people killed.

Disgraceful. We need out of that place, not later but now. This &lt;deleted&gt;%# up [yet again] by NATO aircraft will almost certainly lead to more Afghan soldiers coming out and murdering our ground troop with whom they serve. All nice as pie up at 20000ft. The boys on the ground will be looking over their shoulder even more after this one. OUT NOW, OUT NOW ......

Afghanistan is such a mess. I don't know if a strategy is possible. Sad for the people killed.

The strategy now is USA face saving exercise.

Disgraceful. We need out of that place, not later but now. This &lt;deleted&gt;%# up [yet again] by NATO aircraft will almost certainly lead to more Afghan soldiers coming out and murdering our ground troop with whom they serve. All nice as pie up at 20000ft. The boys on the ground will be looking over their shoulder even more after this one. OUT NOW, OUT NOW ......

That there helicopter was not at 20000 ft and it is the 'boys on the ground', that call in the air assets to stop them being shot at. The 'boys on the ground' give the air asset a grid reference to target. Did the air asset miss the target or hit the target it was given? Someone screwed up, the investigation will find out who, but that will be no consolation to the victims. The point is air and ground work together. Now that is set straight I agree with the rest of your post and we should leave theatre NOW!

Edited May 8, 201214 yr by GentlemanJim

Did the 4 Candadian troops killed and 8 that were injured give there own co -ords when they were attacked by a NATO [ US F-16] aircraft whilst conducting a range practice at Tarnak farm ?

Let me see if I get this right.

Bomb civilians.

Search and destroy patrols.

As soon as an area is under control, lets pull out so the enemy can take over again the day after.

Hard to see who the enemy is, due to lack of uniforms.

Civilians not always willing to cooperate with the foreign troops.

etc, etc

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

Disgraceful. We need out of that place, not later but now. This &lt;deleted&gt;%# up [yet again] by NATO aircraft will almost certainly lead to more Afghan soldiers coming out and murdering our ground troop with whom they serve. All nice as pie up at 20000ft. The boys on the ground will be looking over their shoulder even more after this one. OUT NOW, OUT NOW ......

That there helicopter was not at 20000 ft and it is the 'boys on the ground', that call in the air assets to stop them being shot at. The 'boys on the ground' give the air asset a grid reference to target. Did the air asset miss the target or hit the target it was given? Someone screwed up, the investigation will find out who, but that will be no consolation to the victims. The point is air and ground work together. Now that is set straight I agree with the rest of your post and we should leave theatre NOW!

You have set nothing straight. See previous post. Air jocks are careless and sloppy.

Slightly

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/45-45/1427-video-us-apache-helicopter-kills-12-unarmed-iraqis

There is voice on this one. No troops called this one in. And I don't think the Iraqi civilians called it in on themselves either.

Let me see if I get this right.

Bomb civilians.

Search and destroy patrols.

As soon as an area is under control, lets pull out so the enemy can take over again the day after.

Hard to see who the enemy is, due to lack of uniforms.

Civilians not always willing to cooperate with the foreign troops.

etc, etc

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

Yes. And remember this picture ?

This is what will happen in the Ghan in the not too distant future.

Disgraceful. We need out of that place, not later but now. This &lt;deleted&gt;%# up [yet again] by NATO aircraft will almost certainly lead to more Afghan soldiers coming out and murdering our ground troop with whom they serve. All nice as pie up at 20000ft. The boys on the ground will be looking over their shoulder even more after this one. OUT NOW, OUT NOW ......

That there helicopter was not at 20000 ft and it is the 'boys on the ground', that call in the air assets to stop them being shot at. The 'boys on the ground' give the air asset a grid reference to target. Did the air asset miss the target or hit the target it was given? Someone screwed up, the investigation will find out who, but that will be no consolation to the victims. The point is air and ground work together. Now that is set straight I agree with the rest of your post and we should leave theatre NOW!

You have set nothing straight. See previous post. Air jocks are careless and sloppy.

Slightly

http://readersupport...-unarmed-iraqis

There is voice on this one. No troops called this one in. And I don't think the Iraqi civilians called it in on themselves either.

I never said mistakes were not made in battle, and that is by both ground and air. I was an 'Air jock' in operational theaters and I was NEVER careless or sloppy. So less of the generalizations please. You know nothing of the details of this incident.

Strange thing is that the mission (reason to be there), was acomplished only a year after the troops got there.

To get rid of Taliban, and chase off al-Qaeda so they were on the run were the main objectives.

The Taliban repeatedly offered to turn bin Laden & Co. over to a third country to stand trial.

Also, the decision to invade Afghanistan was made _before_ 9/11.

What the U.S. and friends has committed in that country is nothing short of an atrocity, but I don't expect anyone will ever be made accountable, at least not before the collapse.

The Taliban are still responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties and unlike ISAF they do deliberately target civilians. But outrage as we all know is a function of who did the killing as well as who was killed.

The Taliban repeatedly offered to turn bin Laden & Co. over to a third country to stand trial.

Also, the decision to invade Afghanistan was made _before_ 9/11.

What the U.S. and friends has committed in that country is nothing short of an atrocity, but I don't expect anyone will ever be made accountable, at least not before the collapse.

The Taliban repeatedly offered to turn bin Laden & Co. over to a third country to stand trial.

really? any sources for this?

actually, a quick google confirms that they did offer to turn him over to a neutral country if provided with evidence... i never knew this.

pity the US were seemingly too proud to give them the evidence that they had, it would have saved a lot of lives, but i guess they were more interested in saving face... and people say that's an asian thing.

Edited May 8, 201214 yr by nurofiend

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

Barry Maguire ??

The Taliban repeatedly offered to turn bin Laden & Co. over to a third country to stand trial.

Also, the decision to invade Afghanistan was made _before_ 9/11.

What the U.S. and friends has committed in that country is nothing short of an atrocity, but I don't expect anyone will ever be made accountable, at least not before the collapse.

The Taliban repeatedly offered to turn bin Laden & Co. over to a third country to stand trial.

really? any sources for this?

actually, a quick google confirms that they did offer to turn him over to a neutral country if provided with evidence... i never knew this.

pity the US were seemingly too proud to give them the evidence that they had, it would have saved a lot of lives, but i guess they were more interested in saving face... and people say that's an asian thing.

or perhaps the evidence may have let some cats out of the bag! I don't think pride or face came into it.

The Taliban are still responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties and unlike ISAF they do deliberately target civilians. But outrage as we all know is a function of who did the killing as well as who was killed.

We kind of expected that, since basically whomever works with the foreigners are targeted, including the ones with not correct faith, etc.

What we do not expect is so much dammage done by the foreign forces.

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

Barry Maguire ??

Buffalo Springfield

"For What It's Worth"

Let me see if I get this right.

Bomb civilians.

Search and destroy patrols.

As soon as an area is under control, lets pull out so the enemy can take over again the day after.

Hard to see who the enemy is, due to lack of uniforms.

Civilians not always willing to cooperate with the foreign troops.

etc, etc

Kind of sound a bit familiar to a 10-15 year long conflict some time ago, not too far east of here?

Yes. And remember this picture ?

This is what will happen in the Ghan in the not too distant future.

FYI "Operation Frequent Wind"