Up to 300 Afghan civilians killid or wounded in NATO air strike: report

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/08/03/afghan-casualties.html

Afghan officials on Friday were tallying the number of civilians wounded during a late-night NATO and U.S.-led air strike, after receiving reports up to 300 residents were hurt or killed in Helmand province.

In a telephone interview with the Reuters news service, Helmand's police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, said there were "heavy bombardments" during raids Thursday in the Baghran district.

"We have heard of heavy casualties, too, and have sent a team to investigate this," he said.

Andiwal said that more than 20 wounded civilians were rushed for treatment at a main hospital in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. Other wounded civilians were transferred to hospitals in Kandahar.

Reuters reported that provincial officials and residents were saying between 200 and 300 civilians were killed or wounded following a NATO and U.S.-led precision air strike targeting insurgents.

[babylonsister]

1. When will this end? Hearts and minds sure to be won now. nt

[TomInTib]

2. I love it when they use "heavy bombardments" with "precision air strike".

Who the heck do they think they're fooling?

Each other, that's my guess.

"We caught him on the crapper, Chief, and put one through the window. And blew up the whole goddamned block."

[xchrom]

3. ok -- who the fuck is running the show over there?

find out and FIRE THEM!

[aquart]

4. Hey, this is our "just" war.

This is the war NO ONE is talking about ending.

[malaise]

5. Genocide continues

arrest these war criminals someone.

[Spazito]

6. NATO says the same thing every time it become public that many

civilians have died. They say the same thing and then do the SAME thing, nothing.

A key phrase is "NATO and US-led airstrikes...". It means it was done by the US component that is NOT under the auspices of NATO and NATO was simply informed it was going to happen, imo.

[shadowknows69]

8. BINGO

Several soldiers have told me that their brigade operates completely independent of NATO and its mission there.

[Spazito]

10. Yes, there are, in essence, two factors operating in Afghanistan...

wrt US participation. There are US units that are under the NATO umbrella and a SEPARATE component totally US-led and NOT attached to NATO at all. Whenever the report states "NATO and US-led forces" you just know it was the US-led forces that were in command of whatever operation was carried out.

[JANdad]

7. Were thet acting on "Actionable Intelligence"

And was this a "precision strike"

[sandnsea]

9. Is Edwards going to withdraw from Afghanistan?

Let the Taliban and warlords take over??

[Disturbed]

11. Around 200 civilains were killed but two or three Insurgents

were in that bunch. Mission Accomplished.

The Western Powers have learned nothing from History. Afghanistan will never be colonized by the West.

[Ezlivin]

13. Yeah, but a lot of those children would have turned out bad

We had to take them out before they became a threat.

I'll sleep better tonight now that those pre-pubescent ersatz terrorists are out of the way.

(Do I really need the sarcasm thingy here?)

[sandnsea]

14. I didn't get an answer

Does John Edwards support troop withdrawal from Afghanistan?

[RL3AO]

12. 500 billion doesn't buy better intelligence?

[blogslut]

15. And Little Boots takes a three-day weekend at Camp David

That's our commander in failure

[Disturbed]

16. About NATO

http://www.nato.int/structur/home.htm