November 6, 2008
U.S. Airstrike Reported to Hit Afghan Wedding
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and JOHN F. BURNS
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Tensions between American forces and the Afghan government over civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes spiked again on Wednesday with a report by Afghan officials that a missile from a United States aircraft had killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 others at a wedding party in the southern province of Kandahar.
Afghan officials said casualties from the airstrike, on Monday, included women and children. The United States military command said it was conducting an urgent investigation with the Afghan Interior Ministry. Although the command's statement made no mention of a missile strike or any death toll, it appeared to acknowledge the possibility that noncombatants had been killed.
"Though facts are unclear at this point, we take very seriously our responsibility to protect the people of Afghanistan and to avoid circumstances where noncombatant civilians are placed at risk," the command said. "If innocent people were killed in this operation, we apologize and express our condolences to the families and people of Afghanistan."
The episode in Kandahar followed others this year in which American airstrikes in some of the war's most hotly contested battle zones killed civilians.
The report of the missile strike, in Shah Wali Kot, a rural district north of the city of Kandahar, prompted a renewed protest from the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who referred to the episode at a news conference on Wednesday that was called to congratulate Senator Barack Obama on his election victory.
"The fight against terrorism cannot be won by bombardment of our villages," Mr. Karzai said. "My first demand from the U.S. president, when he takes office, would be to end civilian casualties in Afghanistan and take the war to places where there are terrorist nests and training centers."
In one of the worst cases of civilian deaths by an American strike this year, an attack aimed at a meeting of Taliban insurgent leaders on Aug. 22 killed at least 33 civilians, according to a Pentagon inquiry. Other investigators said the numbers were much higher. According to an Afghan parliamentary investigation, an airstrike in July in the eastern province of Nangarhar also struck a wedding, killing 47 civilians, including the bride.
An initial American military inquiry into the August attack, in the western province of Herat, said only five to seven civilians had died when an American AC-130 gunship attacked the nighttime Taliban meeting, contradicting Afghan and United Nations reports that as many as 90 civilians had died.
The ensuing furor among Afghans, including an angry protest by President Karzai, prompted the top American commander in the country, Gen. David D. McKiernan, to order a second investigation, which raised the civilian death toll to 33.
General McKiernan also ordered a tightening of procedures for launching airstrikes and reporting promptly and accurately on civilian casualties. He has said that minimizing civilian casualties is crucial to turning the worsening tide of the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Zalmay Ayoby, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, said the strike on Monday took place when Taliban and American-led forces were engaged in a firefight near the village of Wegh Bakhtu. He said that an airstrike was called in after the Taliban opened fire on a coalition unit, and that a missile struck a compound where a wedding party was being held.
"Unfortunately we should say that an airstrike on a wedding party had killed and injured a huge number of people in Shah Wali Kot," he said.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president and leader of the provincial council in Kandahar, said that there were civilian casualties, but that it was unclear how many people had died. He said he had spoken with some people wounded in the attack who had been admitted to Kandahar's main hospital. They told him that as many as 32 civilians had been admitted, including women and children from the wedding party, he said.
Dr. Qudratullah Hakimi of the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar said by telephone that the hospital admitted 22 women and 6 children after the attack. The children's ages were 1 to 11, he said. He said the bride had had an operation and was stable. He said that his patients had reported that up to 90 people were killed or wounded, and that some were buried under the rubble, although this could not be independently confirmed.
In Washington on Wednesday, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, an advocacy group, urged President-elect Obama to appoint a senior Pentagon official to oversee policies to help avoid civilian casualties.
Sarah Holewinski, the group's executive director, said the official could "make sure proven techniques to avoid civilians are in place and constantly improved, maintain proper investigative and statistical data on civilian harm in combat zones, and ensure prompt compensation" to civilians unintentionally harmed by American combat operations.
Ms. Holewinski said in a telephone interview that she had been discussing the idea with advisers to Mr. Obama over the past six months. "The issue is important enough to get right, lest we continue to lose public support in Afghanistan," she said.
Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, and John F. Burns from Cambridge, England. Mark McDonald and Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.