PeacePundit has followed a story about a US airstrike in Afghanistan that allegedly killed a large number of civilians. Afghan and UN investigators concluded that 90-95 civilians were killed, including 60 children. The US military initially claimed that mainly Taliban insurgents were killed, plus a few civilians, but reopened its investigation when presented with videos of dead civilians. The US military now acknowledges that at least 33 civilians were killed in that airstrike. [See PeacePundit's complete history of this incident.]
More recently, another US airstrike killed at least 37 Afghan civilians. In contrast with the previous incident, the US military quickly acknowledged the civilian deaths and issued a statement of regret but not one of responsibility. The story is excerpted below.
U.S. acknowledges 37 Afghan civilians killed in fighting
By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King
Los Angeles Times
November 9, 2008
The US military acknowledged Saturday that 37 civilians were killed and 35 injured during fighting last week in Kandahar province between insurgents and coalition forces.
… the American statement stopped short of taking direct blame for civilian casualties in a southern province that is one of the country’s most active battlefields…
The finding came just three days after provincial officials and the Afghan president’s office asserted that three dozen people had died in an errant U.S. airstrike on a wedding party in a village outside the city of Kandahar.
…
… Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, responsible for American forces across the Middle East, was in Afghanistan last week … During his visit, Afghan defense officials told him that civilian casualties were sharply eroding public support for the presence of foreign forces.
The deaths and injuries of noncombatants also have become an extremely sensitive issue between the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and Western forces.
… hours after Sen. Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election, Karzai used what was to have been a congratulatory news conference to plead with the president-elect for an end to civilian fatalities.
The investigation of the deaths in Wech Bagtu village was carried out by Afghan officials, the Afghan army and the US-led coalition, …
In releasing the findings, the U.S. military emphasized that during the battle Monday militants used villagers’ homes for cover. “Village elders told the joint investigation team that insurgents who were not from their village … fired at [Afghan] and coalition forces,” the statement said. Residents were prevented from leaving the area during the battle, it said.
The military did not directly acknowledge that it inadvertently bombed the wedding party, but said coalition forces used “close air support to suppress enemy fire.”
Compensation was paid to the families of the dead and injured, the military said without providing details.
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In Afghanistan’s clan-based society, civilian deaths can cause otherwise peaceable villagers to declare a vendetta against those they consider responsible for killing their kin — in many cases, Western forces.
More than 1,200 civilians have been killed this year. A majority of the deaths were caused by insurgent attacks such as suicide bombings, but human rights groups and Afghan officials say hundreds have died at the hands of foreign forces during fighting with the Taliban and other militant groups.
