[Peace-discuss] American-led troops execute imprisoned children

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is what "Special Forces," supported by Democratic liberals (like local 
candidate David Gill) do. But Obama's doing the best that he can, isn't he...?]

	From The Times/UK
	December 31, 2009
	Western troops accused of executing
	10 Afghan civilians, including children

American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from 
their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all 
but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were 
handcuffed before being killed.

Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist 
cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which 
have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.

“This was a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan 
and US officials had been developing information against for some time,” said a 
senior Nato insider. But he admitted that “the facts about what actually went 
down are in dispute”.

The allegations of civilian casualties led to protests in Kabul and Jalalabad, 
with children as young as 10 chanting “Death to America” and demanding that 
foreign forces should leave Afghanistan at once.

President Karzai sent a team of investigators to Narang district, in eastern 
Kunar province, after reports of a massacre first surfaced on Monday.

“The delegation concluded that a unit of international forces descended from a 
plane Sunday night into Ghazi Khan village in Narang district of the eastern 
province of Kunar and took ten people from three homes, eight of them school 
students in grades six, nine and ten, one of them a guest, the rest from the 
same family, and shot them dead,” a statement on President Karzai’s website said.

Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US soldiers flew to Kunar 
from Kabul, suggesting that they were part of a special forces unit.

“At around 1 am, three nights ago, some American troops with helicopters left 
Kabul and landed around 2km away from the village,” he told The Times. “The 
troops walked from the helicopters to the houses and, according to my 
investigation, they gathered all the students from two rooms, into one room, and 
opened fire.” Mr Wafa, a former governor of Helmand province, met President 
Karzai to discuss his findings yesterday. “I spoke to the local headmaster,” he 
said. “It’s impossible they were al-Qaeda. They were children, they were 
civilians, they were innocent. I condemn this attack.”

In a telephone interview last night, the headmaster said that the victims were 
asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. “Seven students were in one 
room,” said Rahman Jan Ehsas. “A student and one guest were in another room, a 
guest room, and a farmer was asleep with his wife in a third building.

“First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them. Then they 
entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then they killed them. 
Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came outside. When they saw him 
they shot him as well. He was outside. That’s why his wife wasn’t killed.”

A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one room and 
five were handcuffed before they were shot. “I saw their school books covered in 
blood,” he said.

The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to 17. The 
guest was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster said. He said 
that six of the students were at high school and two were at primary school. He 
said that all the students were his nephews. In Jalalabad, protesters set alight 
a US flag and an effigy of President Obama after chanting “Death to Obama” and 
“Death to foreign forces”. In Kabul, protesters held up banners showing 
photographs of dead children alongside placards demanding “Foreign troops leave 
Afghanistan” and “Stop killing us”.

Hekmatullah, 10, a protester, said: “We’re sick of Americans bombing us.” 
Samiullah Miakhel, 60, a protester. said: “The Americans are just all the time 
killing civilians.”

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said that there was “no direct 
evidence to substantiate” Mr Wafa’s claims that unarmed civilians were harmed in 
what it described as a “joint coalition and Afghan security force” operation.

“As the joint assault force entered the village they came under fire from 
several buildings and in returning fire killed nine individuals,” he said.

• Eight Americans were killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan yesterday 
(Jerome Starkey writes). Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said 
that the dead were not uniformed soldiers. Afghan sources said that they were 
civilians killed in a suicide attack on a compound in Khost province. The US 
Embassy in Kabul said: “Eight Americans have been killed in an attack on 
RC-East,” referring to the military region of eastern Afghanistan that includes 
14 provinces.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6971638.ece