Liars. Fucking assholes say they have had no reports about civilian casualties, while everyone on the fucking ground who experienced their bloodthirsty calloused indifference to human suffering says different. NATO are losing. They have the airpower, they have troops on the ground, but they view the entire country's inhabitants as the enemy, and behave accordingly. They are losing, and are lying to you about it. Fuck them.
NATO strike blamed for wedding deaths in Afghanistan
- The Times
- June 07, 2012
Hours after the airstrike in the eastern province of Logar, two suicide bombings in Kandahar killed a further 22 people, while separately, two Nato service members died in a helicopter crash.
The airstrike killed a number of insurgents and slightly wounded two women civilians, according to Nato, but local security and government officials said that 18 guests at a wedding were killed when the building in which they were celebrating was hit.
The bodies of five women and seven children were brought to the provincial capital in the back of vans, according to an Associated Press photographer. The head of the local council of Sajawand village, Mohammad Wali, said that a number of families had gathered in a house on Tuesday night for a wedding party.
An airstrike hit the house at about 1am, he said. "The house is completely destroyed. Everyone is shovelling to try to get the bodies out," Mr Wali said.
Nato said that it had no operational reports of civilian casualties but was looking into the allegations.
Hours later, in one of the most brutal attacks on civilians this year, a Taliban suicide bomber on a three-wheeled motorbike blew himself up at a road-side stop for truck drivers delivering supplies to the nearby Nato-run Kandahar Airfield.
After the first attack, at least one more bomber approached the scene on foot and detonated an explosive vest, witnesses said. Officials said 22 people were killed, all of them civilians. The tactic of using secondary bombers, which aims to kill security personnel who attend the initial blast site, has been used sparingly in Afghanistan.
Condemning the attack, President Karzai said that "the enemy was getting weaker because they are killing innocent people".
Civilian deaths were down significantly in the first four months of this year, according to United Nations statistics released last week, but yesterday's bloodshed is a reminder that ordinary Afghans remain at risk from both insurgents and Nato-led forces. The issue of air attacks resulting in civilian casualties has become increasingly thorny for the US and its allies across the border in Pakistan.
Speaking in India yesterday, the US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, vowed to continue drone attacks on al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan despite criticism from Islamabad about sovereignty.
"We have made it very clear that we are going to continue to defend ourselves," Mr Panetta said, after confirmation that the US had killed the terrorist group's deputy leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
"This is about our sovereignty as well," he added, noting that the leadership of those involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks remained in Pakistan tribal areas.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Taliban said that insurgents had used a rocket to shoot down an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter over Ghazni province, killing two Nato service members. Nato said that it was investigating the cause of the crash. No one else was in the helicopter at the time.
The US is expected to rely more on its air power in coming years as most ground troops leave the country before the end of 2014.
THE TIMES
