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Afghans killed 'in new US attack' |
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Nine Afghan civilians have been killed in a bombing raid in Kapisa province, Afghan officials say.
US forces have confirmed carrying out an air strike in the area but say they have no accurate casualty information.
The news comes shortly after US forces were accused of killing 10 civilians during a shoot out on Sunday in Nangarhar province.
Journalists say US troops confiscated their photos and video footage of the aftermath of the violence.
The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says the international mission to Afghanistan is to help the government and the people. But heavy fighting and suicide attacks have led to the death of thousands of innocent people over the past year.
President Karzai has been critical of the international forces in the past, saying they should do more to prevent civilian casualties.
Nato denial
News of the air strike in Kapisa came first from the province's deputy governor, Sayed Daud Hashimi.
He said the nine dead civilians included five women and three children and that the raid was carried out by Nato forces. Nato have denied any involvement.
But later a US military statement said US-led forces had "dropped two 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs" during an air strike in Kapisa after a Nato base had come under attack.
A US spokesman, Lt Col David Accetta, said the Nato base had come under rocket attack and that "two men with AK-47s" were seen leaving the scene of the rocket attack and entering a compound," the Associated Press news agency reports.
"These men knowingly endangered civilians by retreating into a populated area while conducting attacks against coalition forces."
Local people say that the coalition forces then bombed a mud-brick home, killing nine members of the same extended family.
The news came shortly after President Hamid Karzai had condemned an incident on Sunday in which US forces were accused of firing indiscriminately at civilians in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
'Co-ordinated attack'
The Americans say the Nangarhar fighting, near the city of Jalalabad, started when a convoy of marines was attacked by a suicide bomber and came under co-ordinated small-arms fire.
They say their soldiers returned fire, and acknowledge that at least eight Afghan civilians were killed, with a further 35 injured.
President Karzai has "strongly condemned the incident which took place due to a suicide attack on a coalition convoy and which prompted the coalition force firing on civilians that killed 10 people", a statement from his office said.
Reports say that as they left the scene along a busy highway, the Americans fired indiscriminately on civilians and their vehicles.
Thousands of local people took to the streets on Sunday to protest against what happened. The Afghan authorities have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the militant attack.
The Associated Press news agency says it will complain to the US military after journalists said US soldiers deleted footage of the aftermath of the Nangarhar violence.
Freelance journalists working for the Associated Press said troops erased photos and video showing a vehicle in which three people were shot dead during Sunday's incident in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Source: BBC |
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A Look at Afghan Civilian Deaths |
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U.S. Marines fleeing a suicide bombing and militant ambush open fire on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, witnesses said. Officials say up to 10 civilians were killed and 35 injured. The Interior Ministry says American gunfire caused most of the casualties; U.S. officials say they are still sorting through the chain of events but that the suicide bombing or militant gunfire could have been responsible.
- Feb. 27: NATO-led troops in the Kandahar shot and killed a civilian who drove too close to their convoy, police said.
- Oct. 26: Between 30 and 80 civilians were killed during NATO airstrikes in Panjwayi, a volatile district in southern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan government and villagers. NATO said its preliminary inquiry found 12 civilian deaths.
- Oct. 18: Airstrikes by NATO helicopters hunting Taliban fighters destroyed three dried-mud homes in Ashogho, in southern Afghanistan, as villagers slept, killing 13 people, police said.
- July 10: U.S. military said more than 40 Taliban were killed in an airstrike in Tirin Kot. Residents said at least four civilians died.
- May 21: U.S. warplanes hunting Taliban fighters bombed a religious school and mud-brick homes in the village of Azizi in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 16 civilians, according to local officials.
- April 15: A U.S. airstrike aimed at militants holed up in eastern Kunar province killed seven civilians, the military said.
- April 30, 2005: Three civilians died in airstrikes that targeted Taliban militants, the U.S. military said.
- July 1, 2005: A U.S. airstrike on a house in eastern Afghanistan killed as many as 17, including women and children, provincial officials said. The U.S. military confirmed some civilians died in the strike.
- Jan. 17, 2004: An American airstrike on a village in Uruzgan province kills 10 civilians, including women and children, according to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
-Dec. 6, 2003: The U.S. military said an airstrike intended to target a Taliban commander killed nine children in an Afghan mountain village in eastern Ghazni province. The attack occurred the day after another strike on a suspected militant's compound in eastern Paktia province set off secondary explosions that killed six children.
-April 9, 2003: A U.S. warplane, called in to support allied Afghans under fire near the Pakistani border, mistakenly bombarded a home instead, killing 11 civilians.
-July 1, 2002: A U.S. airstrike killed 48 people during a wedding in attacks on five villages in Uruzgan province, Afghan officials said. A U.S. investigative report later confirmed 34 dead.
Source: AP, USA |
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U.S. chopper crash kills 8 in Afghanistan |
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Eight U.S. soldiers were killed and 14 injured when their helicopter crashed in a mountainous, snow-covered area of southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
The twin-rotor Ch-47 Chinook crashed a few hours before dawn after the pilot suddenly lost power and control of the aircraft, the military said in a statement.
Recent reports indicated a Taliban build-up for operations against the U.S.-led Coalition forces in the area, near Pakistan.
But the U.S. military said there was no evidence hostile fire or bad weather was behind the crash.
"The loss of these service members is felt by all of us here in Afghanistan, and we offer our deepest sympathy to the families of those who were killed," coalition spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel David Accetta said.
Asked if any enemy fire was involved, U.S. Marine Major William Mitchell told CNN from Afghanistan: "So far indications are strong that it was related only to the engine problem."
NATO and the Taliban are all warning of a major spring offensive as the snows melt in coming weeks and months, after last year saw the bloodiest fighting since the strict Islamists were toppled in 2001.
Taliban commander Hayatullah Khan told Reuters by telephone from a secret location the guerrillas had shot down the craft. But the Taliban have made similar claims in the past which have not been substantiated.
The only confirmed downing of a foreign military helicopter by insurgents since the Taliban were toppled was in mid-2005 in Kunar province, when 17 people were killed as the helicopter came in to land during a combat operation.
NATO VOWS INITIATIVE
Fourteen British personnel were killed when their plane crashed during combat in a major offensive in September in Kandahar province, but that incident was attributed to a technical failure.
On Saturday, the Dutch commander in charge of NATO forces in the south, the Taliban's spiritual heartland, rejected rebel warnings they are massing 10,000 fighters and have more than 2,000 suicide bombers ready for an offensive.
"The (Taliban) spring offensive will not happen because we are going to take the initiative," Major-General Ton van Loon told reporters in Uruzgan province, one of the worst hit by fighting in recent months, echoing comments by NATO chiefs.
He said he saw no evidence the Taliban were massing forces and he expected none of the conventional pitched battles which saw the insurgents suffer heavy losses in 2006.
Most NATO and U.S. commanders say they expect the rebels to return to hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, including more use of suicide bombers.
While not as common as in Iraq, and with far fewer casualties, suicide bomb attacks increased dramatically last year and militants here copy tactics.
After U.S. and NATO commanders warned a few months ago of a Taliban offensive, they now say NATO will take the initiative instead.
On Saturday, NATO troops shot dead an Afghan civilian who they said ran between stationary vehicles in a convoy and ignored warning shots in Kandahar province, neighboring Uruzgan. The incident is being investigated.
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