For my part, I am sick of my government murdering beautiful, innocent people that NEVER DID ANYTHING TO US!
Monday
"Afghan Elders and U.S. Differ on Who Killed 12 Civilians" by David Rohde/New York Times August 27, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 26 — Afghan elders said Sunday that airstrikes had killed 12 civilians in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday night, but an American military spokesman blamed Taliban militants for the civilian deaths.
Exactly what occurred in the remote area was unclear, with local elders and American military officials giving conflicting accounts. But the charges and countercharges reflected growing tensions in Afghanistan over civilian deaths.
Hajji Agha Muhammad, an Afghan elder, said airstrikes had killed 12 civilians and wounded 12 others in Kobar, a village in the volatile Musa Qala district, on Saturday night. Mr. Muhammad said the dead included six children ages 3 to 6 and two women.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Muhammad said foreign patrols had entered the area in the early evening and faced no opposition. Several hours later, airstrikes destroyed two houses, he said.
American military officials said that Afghan and American troops had clashed with Taliban fighters who were guarding a large heroin lab. Helmand produces more opium than any other province in Afghanistan, and Taliban militants are believed to have struck an alliance with drug traffickers in the Musa Qala area.
After American and Afghan forces destroyed the lab, they were ambushed by Taliban fighters, American officials said. During the battle, the Taliban fired 82-millimeter mortars. NATO responded with airstrikes, they said, but no bombs fell on houses.
Lt. Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for the American forces in Afghanistan:
“We didn’t target any buildings or any structures. My guess would be that if any houses were destroyed, it would have been the result of Taliban fire.”
An official at the main hospital in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, said two men, two women and one child arrived from Musa Qala on Sunday with shrapnel wounds. Additional wounded people were taken to nearby hospitals, he said, but he had no exact figures.
The issue of civilian deaths is causing rising anger in Afghanistan this year. More than 300 Afghan civilians have died in NATO airstrikes, according to one international report.
NATO officials say they make every effort to avoid civilian casualties, and they accuse the Taliban of basing their fighters in houses and using civilians as human shields. They also say the Taliban exaggerate the number of civilian deaths for propaganda purposes.
[Of course, the US would never minimize the problem for propaganda purposes, nor would AmeriKa's newspapers ever lie, obfuscate, and hide information from American news consumers either, right?
Right? RIGHT?]
At the main hospital in Lashkar Gah, a relative of the wounded, Hajji Saeed Mohammad, told Reuters:
“We can’t do anything, can’t stay in our villages and can’t go anywhere. It is best for us to be killed all at once than being killed every day.”
[Some one explain to him that this is what Bush means when he says "liberation?"]
"Civilians injured in raid, officials say... Six Afghan family members, including two women and a child, were wounded in a military operation supported by Western airpower in southern Afghanistan, a hospital official said yesterday. There also were unconfirmed reports from residents of the area, controlled by Taliban insurgents, that civilians had been killed by bombs in the Saturday raid. The US military denied that any civilians were killed (Reuters)."
[And that's that, huh?]
Tuesday
Times hides this smack dab in the middle of another article on the Afghan drug trade (two in two days now):
"Second Record Level for Afghan Opium Crop" by David Rohde/New York Times August 28, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 —On the day the report was released, NATO and American officials announced the deaths of five foreign soldiers. Three American soldiers were killed Monday in Kunar in the northeast, American officials said. And officials announced that a NATO soldier was killed Monday in the eastern Afghanistan and a Dutch soldier was killed Sunday in Oruzgan in the south."
[No Afghanis or Taliban killed, Times?
That's ok. We will turn to the AP then -- although the headline tells which lives are important and which aren't:]
"6 Westerners die in Afghanistan fighting" by Chris Brummitt/Associated Press | August 28, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Fighting between NATO troops and Taliban fighters killed eight soldiers, including six Westerners, and 10 militants in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where insurgent attacks are running at their highest level since the US invasion, officials said yesterday.
There have been more insurgent attacks on Afghan and Western troops in recent months than at any time since US forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban government.
In the Netherlands, General Dick Berlijn, defense chief, said a Dutch sergeant was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday night near the town of Deh Rawod.
Gunmen shot and killed another NATO soldier during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan the same day, NATO said. Yesterday, a third NATO soldier was killed and another wounded when insurgents ambushed them using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said.
NATO did not release the soldiers' nationalities, but most NATO troops in the east are American.
Another ambush yesterday killed three members of the US-led coalition and two Afghan soldiers in eastern Kunar province, a statement from the coalition said.
The statement said the coalition soldiers were advisers to the Afghan Army, but did not identify them.
And here is what the Globe's website censored:
"Afghan police, meanwhile, killed six suspected militants during a one-hour gunbattle in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, late on Sunday, said Ghamia Khan, a spokesman for the provincial governor. He gave no more details.
In the southern Zabul province, Afghan and coalition troops clashed with insurgents in Daychopan district Sunday, killing four suspected Taliban and wounding four others, said Fazel Bari, the Daychopan district chief.
Also Sunday, Afghan and coalition troops destroyed a heroin laboratory after battling Taliban fighters guarding the facility, a separate coalition statement said. The lab in Helmand contained large amounts of opium-processing chemicals as well as weapons, insurgent propaganda and explosive materials, it said.
[I am tired of the wars, and tired of my government air bombing innocent men, women, and children!!
Just wanted that on the record, world.
Sadly, I'm an American]
