Anger over Deaths of Children in Recent Afghan Spec Ops Raid

jumpinjarhead · Feb 26, 2010

This case needs resolution--it is beginning to stink--if there was a screw-up (in terms of the actions on the ground--the actions since then already are screwed up apparently), those involved need to be held publicly accountable--in accordance with all applicable legal procedures.

Hunt down the spy behind deaths of our children, say Afghan night raid survivors

Top row, left to right: Atiqullah, 15, Attahullah, 15, Ismael, 12, Matiullah, 16. Bottom row, left to right: Samiullah, 12, Rahimullah, 17, Sebhanullah, 17 and guest Samar Gul, 12

Top row, left to right: Atiqullah, 15, Attahullah, 15, Ismael, 12, Matiullah, 16. Bottom row, left to right: Samiullah, 12, Rahimullah, 17, Sebhanullah, 17 and guest Samar Gul, 12

Jerome Starkey in Kabul

The survivors of a night raid in eastern Afghanistan in December that left ten people dead, including eight schoolboys from one family, have still not received compensation and investigators are no closer to arresting the gunmen involved.

President Karzaiâs security chiefs demanded that the raiders face trial, while local officials promised to arrest the informant, or informants, who fed covert US and Afghan forces false information before the assault.

âWe are following the case,â said the provincial police chief, Khalilullah Zaiea. âBut we still donât know the exact team of Americans involved, so we canât identify the spy.â

The pre-dawn raid, on December 27, prompted angry protests across Afghanistan. Children as young as 10 burned effigies of President Obama and chanted âdeath to Americaâ.

Samiullah Miakhel, 60, one of the organisers, said: âAfghan blood is human blood. The Americans are just all the time killing civilians.â

No one has admitted responsibility for the operation. US forces stationed near by denied any knowledge or involvement. Natoâs top legal adviser told The Times that US forces were present but not leading the operation.

Senior officers in Kabul hinted that the âtrigger-pullersâ were Afghan. One official said that the force was ânon-militaryâ.

Mark Sedwill, Natoâs senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, said that Nato was âstill looking into the final detailsâ of the incident and would give its judgment soon.

âIn the end, for us any number of civilian casualties is too high,â he said, adding that the slow pace of the current Operation Moshtarak in Helmand was due to the added care being taken not to inflict such casualties.

None of that is much comfort to the families of the dead.

âWe still havenât received any money,â said Farooq Abul Ajan, who lost two sons, two brothers, three nephews and a cousin in the raid. âBut we donât want any money. We want the Government to arrest the spy and to arrest the people who killed our sons.â

An Afghan man was sentenced to death for spying in 2009, after giving American Special Forces information that led to an air strike in which nearly 100 civilians were killed, but no foreign troops have ever faced trial under Hamid Karzaiâs rule.

Nato maintains that the gunmen who killed ten people in Narang district in December were not part of the International Security Assistance Force, while Americaâs Special Operations Task Force, based at Bagram Air Field, refused to comment on the allegations that the victims were innocent schoolchildren.

Assadullah Wafa, a special adviser to President Karzai who led the original investigation, said the relatives would receive $2,000 (Â£1,300) for each of the victims after Nato admitted that it was a âcivilian casualty incidentâ.

Originally the coalition claimed that a âjoint assault forceâ was shot at when it entered Ghazi Khan village in a remote and mountainous part of Kunar Province, close to the Pakistan border. The Times disclosed yesterday, however, that officials now admit that the children were enrolled in a local school.

âKnowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack,â an official in Kabul said.

A damning report on night raids by the Open Society Institute warned that the lack of accountability among covert forces was fuelling discontent.

âAfghans often find it difficult to identify which forces were involved in a given incident,â the report warned.

Local officials said a general from Bagram Air Field visited Narang soon after the raid. Assadullah Wafa said the raiders flew to Kunar from Kabul. A local police source said they thought they flew from Jalalabad, the main city in eastern Afghanistan.

In May 2008 Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, criticised international forces for their unwillingness or inability to identify which international units were involved in military operations.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7041941.ece
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Anger over Deaths of Children in Recent Afghan Spec Ops Raid

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