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UPDATE H/T to Martini
(TimesOnline) – As the doctor walks between rows of bodies, people lift funeral shrouds to reveal the faces of children and babies, some with severe head injuries.
Women are heard wailing in the background. “Oh God, this is just a child,” shouts one villager. Another cries: “My mother, my mother.”
The grainy video eight-minute footage, seen exclusively by The Times, is the most compelling evidence to emerge of what may be the biggest loss of civilian life during the Afghanistan war.
Firedoglake: Ollie North Rides Again – To An Afghan Massacre
KABUL, Afghanistan – “In light of emerging evidence pertaining to civilian casualties in the August 22 counter-insurgency operation in the Shindand District, Herat province, I feel it is prudent to request that U.S. Central Command send a general officer to review the U.S. investigation and its findings with respect to this new evidence,” Gen. David McKiernan — the senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan and the commander of the 40-nation NATO-led mission — said in a statement.
A police officer looks at a house destroyed in the air strike on Shindand (Sky News)
The attack has further strained relations between Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and the foreign forces operating against the Taliban and al-Qaida in the country.
But an initial U.S. investigation said only up to seven civilians and 35 militants were killed in the operation in the western province of Herat.
A U.N. official who has seen one video of Azizabad told The Associated Press it shows maimed children. The official became highly emotional describing rows of bodies.
A second Western official has said one video shows bodies of “tens of children” lined up and he called the video “gruesome.” The two officials spoke on condition they not be identified because the videos had not been publicly released.
The New York Times reported on its Web site that one of its reporters had seen cell phone video in Azizabad of at least 11 dead children among some 30 to 40 bodies laid out in the village mosque. The Times also said Azizabad had 42 freshly dug graves, including 13 so small they could hold only children.
Karzai has for years warned the U.S. and NATO that it must stop killing civilians in its bombing runs, saying such deaths undermine his government and the international mission. But the Azizabad incident could finally push Karzai to take action.
Shortly after the Azizabad attack, he ordered a review of whether the U.S. and NATO should be allowed to use airstrikes or carry out raids in villages. He also called for an updated “status of force” agreement between the Afghan government and foreign militaries. That review has not yet been completed.
Nek Mohammad Ishaq, a provincial council member in Herat and a member of the Afghan investigating commission, has said photographs and video taken of the victims are with Afghanistan’s secretive intelligence service.
Ahmad Nader Nadery, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, has said a villager named Reza, whose compound bore the brunt of the attack, had a private security company that worked for the U.S. military at nearby Shindand airport.
Villagers and officials have said the operation was based on faulty information provided by a rival of Reza. Aziz Ahmad Nadem, a member of parliament from Herat, has told the AP that the rival is now being protected by the U.S. military.
Afghan officials say U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos raided the village while hundreds of people were gathered in a large compound for a memorial service honoring a tribal leader, Timor Shah, who was killed eight months ago by a rival, Nader Tawakal. Reza, who was killed in the Aug. 22 operation, is Shah’s brother.
Pakistan’s tribal areas gave birth to a new generation of leadership
Between 2 – 8 AM on August 22, 2008 in the village of Azizabad located 4 miles due east of the Shindand air base and due south of Herat city in Herat Province. A ground force led by U.S. Special Forces (7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) based in Shindand), allegedly came under fire as it approached the village, carrying out a midnight raid to allegedly apprehend a Taliban commander, Mullah Siddiq. The U.S. Special Forces called-in close air support and a fierce bombardment of the village ensued involving both ground and air fire (including from a US Air Force Special Operations AC-130 aerial gunship, Apache attack helicopters and Predator drones).
US "precision" bombing in Afghanistan
The U.S. bombs struck a large gathering of people who had congregated in Azizabad to honor a local leader who had died months earlier. A resident, Fatima, 25, explained from her hospital bed in Herat, where she wept and cursed those who carried out the air strike. “We were holding a memorial service in our home,” she said, tears running down her face. “Suddenly the infidels attacked and I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was in hospital, and they told me that all of my family were dead and already buried. Was my two-year-old child a terrorist? Then am I not also a terrorist? Why did they let me live?”
≈ See also my previous diary — US Bombing: 60 Children Among Afghan Dead ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
