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May 11, 2009

Evidence shows Taliban killed civilians, not U.S. strike

Topics: Afghanistan

From the Marine Corps Times - a report that won't get much coverage in the media: Taliban held to blame in airstrike:

Taliban held to blame in airstrike

By Trista Talton and Andrew deGrandpré - Staff writers
Sunday May 10, 2009

Days before a May 4 U.S. airstrike allegedly killed Afghan civilians in Farah province, Taliban commanders met across the border in Quetta, Pakistan, to hatch a plot to turn Afghan public sentiment against U.S. forces, according to a military source in Afghanistan who is familiar with the incident.

By many accounts, their plan worked: Within hours of the airstrike, international media were reporting that upwards of 150 innocents, including women and children, had been killed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Adviser James Jones, the former Marine commandant, both expressed sympathy for the loss of life.

But evidence now shows that many of those civilian casualties appear to have been killed by Taliban grenades -- after the airstrike -- in a blatant effort to drive up the number of dead and stir public resentment of U.S. military power, the source said.

The Taliban killed 30 to 40 civilians, according to the source. An official count has not been released pending completion of a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation.

Army Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters May 7, "We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of these civilian casualties."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking during a news conference that same day in Kabul, said he had seen such reports but that nothing was confirmed. Neither McKiernan nor Gates elaborated.

Learn what went down, and more - here ...

HT - Sweetness & Light

Posted by Richard at May 11, 2009 3:24 PM

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