Tuesday, September 2, 2008

5 Days, 500 Civilians Killed in Afghanistan

Here is a look at two of them.

Let's cover the current slaughter, and then move to the totals.


"AFGHANISTAN: WITNESSES SAY 70+ CIVILIANS KILLED IN AIR STRIKE

(AGI) - Kabul, 1 Sept - Over 70 civilians have reportedly been killed in an air strike by international forces in the Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Reuters received reports of this from a number of residents in Sangin, the district where the bloodshed allegedly occurred. At the moment the news has not yet been confirmed by the Afghan government, which last week threatened to reconsider the role of foreign troops after another air strike on 22 August, killed 90 civilians, including over 50 children. The command of the US-led contingent has not commented on the charges but said that last week in the Helmand province 220 suspected Taliban fighters had been killed. In Kabul, hundreds of Afghans have begun protesting in the streets against he death of four civilians, including two very young children, which happened this morning during an operation by foreign troops in the suburbs of the eastern part of the capital. This, at least, was claimed by the demonstrators, who showed journalists the bodies of two of the young children, saying that in an attack on a house in the Hoodkhail village a man and a woman also lost their lives. A witness, Mohammad Naweed, said that the international troops took the three men from the house after having blown up a bomb to open a passageway. It is not clear whether the woman killed was the mother of the two young boys.

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"‘500 civilians killed, injured in Afghanistan’

PESHAWAR: At least 500 civilians were killed or wounded during the five-day US-led troops' ground and air operation in the Sangin district of Helmand province, a member of Afghanistan's parliament said on Sunday.

"Foreign forces have been conducting operation in Sarwan Qala area of Sangin district for the last five days in which artillery and aircraft are being used," Dad Muhammad Khan, member of Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament), told Afghan Islamic Press.

"The dead and injured were lying in the area and there is no one to shift the injured. Yesterday, I raised the issue in the parliament but the government has done nothing so far," he said.

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