Afghans say airstrikes killed 21 civilians

By Robert Noyce
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:09 a.m. MDT
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HERAT, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said Wednesday that airstrikes called in by U.S. Special Forces against Taliban fighters in Helmand Province had killed 21 civilians, the latest in a series of claims of noncombatant casualties that have strained relations with the Afghan government.

U.S. military officials said they could not confirm that civilians had died in the fighting, a 16-hour battle that took place Tuesday at a village called Sarban Qala, near Sangin in Helmand Province.

But the governor of Helmand and the local administrator said that civilians were killed, among them women and children, when their houses were bombed. "Twenty-one civilians were killed due to aerial bombardment," said Ezatullah, the district chief of Sangin, who uses only one name, in a telephone interview.

In a sign of the growing anger with the presence of foreign troops, the upper house of the Afghan parliament passed a motion on Wednesday calling for a military cease-fire and negotiations with the Taliban. The resolution is not expected to become law.

U.S. military officials have emphasized that in at least two of the incidents, soldiers were under heavy attack by Taliban militants and called in airstrikes to help.

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During the battle on Tuesday, Afghan National Army troops accompanied by American Special Forces encountered more than 200 well-armed Taliban on a ridge during a patrol 15 miles northeast of Sangin, the U.S. military said in a statement from Bagram Air Base. The airstrikes were called in to destroy what Sgt. Dean Welch, a spokesman for the American command at the base, said were three compounds and an underground tunnel network.

"We understand there are reports of civilian casualties but don't have any confirmed reports," Welch said, adding that an investigation would be started if reports of civilian deaths were confirmed.

He said that the American and Afghan soldiers were ambushed three times as they pursued over the Taliban fighters.

Ezatullah, the Afghan official said "some Taliban were also killed," including a commander. He added that villagers turned on the Taliban and fought them.

U.S. and NATO officials have acknowledged in recent days that the civilian casualties have set back their efforts and given a propaganda windfall to the Taliban, which has vowed to take revenge for the killings.

Nicholas Lunt, a NATO spokesman in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press that it was "quite clear" that the action by the Afghan parliament was a statement about how military operations are carried out. He said NATO took the issue "very, very seriously."

"I do not consider this at the moment a decisive vote on our status here, and I think it would be wrong to interpret it that way," he said. "But I think it is definitely a warning shot across NATO's bow to take notice of the concerns."

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