U.S. Killed 90, Including 60 Children, in Afghan Village, U.N. Finds
By CARLOTTA GALL
August 26, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A United Nations human rights team has found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians -- among them 60 children -- were killed in airstrikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Friday, according to the United Nations mission in Kabul.
If the assertion proves to be correct, this would almost certainly be the deadliest case of civilian casualties caused by any United States military operation in Afghanistan since 2001.
The United Nations statement adds pressure to the United States military, which maintains that 25 militants and 5 civilians were killed in the airstrikes, but has ordered an investigation after Afghan officials reported the higher civilian death toll.
The United Nations team visited the scene and interviewed survivors and local officials and elders, getting a name, age and gender of each person reported killed. The team reported that 15 people had been wounded in the airstrikes.
The numbers closely match those given by a government commission sent from Kabul to investigate the bombing, which put the total dead at up to 95.
Mohammad Iqbal Safi, the head of the parliamentary defense committee and a member of the government commission, said the 60 children were 3 months old to 16 years old, all killed as they slept. "It was a heartbreaking scene," he said.
The death toll may rise higher, because heavy lifting equipment is needed to uncover all the remains, said one Western official who had seen the United Nations report.
"This is a matter of grave concern to the United Nations," Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. "It is vital that the international and Afghan military forces thoroughly review the conduct of this operation in order to prevent a repeat of this tragic incident."
The bombing occurred around midnight, the United Nations statement said. "Foreign and Afghan military personnel entered the village of Nawabad in the Azizabad area of Shindand district," it said. "Military operations lasted several hours during which airstrikes were called in.
"The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident," the statement said, with seven or eight houses "having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others."
Mr. Safi, the member of Parliament, said the villagers had been preparing for a ceremony the next morning in memory of a man who died some time before. Extended families from two tribes were visiting the village, and there were lights of fires as the adults cooked food for the ceremony, he said.
How the military came to call in airstrikes on a civilian gathering is unclear. Two members of Parliament, Mr. Safi and Maulavi Gul Ahmad, who is from the area, said the villagers blamed tribal enemies for giving the military false intelligence on foreign fighters gathering in the village.
Mr. Ahmad blamed United States Special Forces, who are training the Afghan Army and were present in the joint operation. "I can't blame the Afghan National Army for the incident, as they had no authority for leading the operation," he said.
The government commission met with the commander of United States forces in Herat Province, but he declined to answer their questions, saying the United States military was conducting its own investigation, Afghan government officials said.
The Defense Department said it would not have a separate statement on the bombing beyond the one issued by the American military headquarters in Afghanistan. That statement said in part that the operation killed 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, Mullah Sadiq, and 5 "noncombatants."
The report said, "Coalition forces are aware of allegations that the engagement in the Shindand district of Herat Province, Friday, may have resulted in civilian casualties apart from those already reported."
Russia, at odds with the United States and much of the West over its recognition of two breakaway regions in Georgia, on Tuesday circulated at the United Nations a draft of a document known as a "Security Council press statement" about the airstrike and the civilian casualties that said member nations "strongly deplore the fact that this is not the first incident of this kind," The Associated Press reported.
The draft, obtained by The A.P., notes "that killing and maiming of civilians is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law" and asks for measures to ensure protection of civilians.
The operation in Afghanistan came almost a year after a strike on a village by United States Special Forces in the same district, which caused the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan at the time, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, to recommend a review of American and NATO rules of engagement.
Over the next six months, there was a drop in aerial bombing and civilian casualties in Afghanistan, but the toll increased again with the rise in insurgent activity this summer, as General McNeill handed off authority to the new American commander, Gen. David McKiernan.
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting.