[Peace-discuss] Obama's war

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From the CIA's favorite newspaper. Internecine war in US crusade vs. terrorism?]


Petraeus's comments on coalition attack reportedly offend Karzai government
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 22, 2011; A06

KABUL - To the shock of President Hamid Karzai's aides, Gen. David H. Petraeus 
suggested Sunday at the presidential palace that Afghans caught up in a 
coalition attack in northeastern Afghanistan might have burned their own 
children to exaggerate claims of civilian casualties, according to two 
participants at the meeting.

The exact language Petraeus used in the closed-door session is not known, and 
neither is the precise message he meant to convey. But his remarks about the 
deadly U.S. military operation in Konar province were deemed deeply offensive by 
some in the room. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the 
private discussions.

They said Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, dismissed allegations 
by Karzai's office and the provincial governor that civilians were killed and 
said residents had invented stories, or even injured their children, to pin the 
blame on U.S. forces and force an end to the operation.

"I was dizzy. My head was spinning," said one participant, referring to 
Petraeus's remarks. "This was shocking. Would any father do this to his 
children? This is really absurd."

Petraeus, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

U.S. and Afghan officials are investigating what happened during the three- to 
four-day operation in the mountains of Ghaziabad district, one of the most 
dangerous and inhospitable parts of Afghanistan. U.S. military officials said 
there is no evidence that civilians died. The governor of Konar, Fazlullah 
Wahidi, disagreed, citing reports from villagers that dozens of women and 
children perished. Karzai's office placed the civilian death toll at 50.

The key period involves five hours between Thursday night and Friday morning, 
during which Apache helicopters fired on suspected insurgents who had gathered 
to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, said Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the top U.S. 
military spokesman in Kabul.

The insurgents fled down a hillside in small groups, away from any houses. U.S. 
and Afghan ground troops remained far to the south, Smith said.

During the next five hours, Smith said, surveillance drones tracked the fighters 
while the Apaches fired 30mm Gatling guns, rockets and Hellfire missiles. "I 
have reviewed the footage and found no evidence women and children were among 
the fighters," he said. "Again, no civilian structures were anywhere near where 
these engagements took place. It was at night and in very rugged terrain."

According to intercepted conversations, Smith said, insurgents discussed 
contacting government officials to tell them that civilians were being killed so 
that coalition helicopters could be stopped from firing. The insurgents also 
discussed their casualties, "stating they lost 50 and needed help in getting out 
the wounded and quickly burying the dead," he said.

On Saturday, Wahidi, the provincial governor, sent a three-person fact-finding 
team up the valley to the village of Helgal. The team returned with seven 
injured people, including a woman and a man, both 22 years old, and five boys 
and girls 16 or younger. Smith said they had burns and shrapnel wounds, none of 
them life-threatening.

The U.S. military "did have initial reports that the feet and hands of the 
children appeared to have been burned," Smith said. "We have observed increased 
reporting of children being disciplined by having their hands and feet dipped 
into boiling water. No one is claiming this is the case in this instance, but it 
may well be."

Petraeus apparently had suggested something along these lines at the national 
security council meeting Sunday, remarks that "really bothered everyone," 
including Karzai, one participant said.

"He claimed that in the midst of the [operation] some pro-Taliban parents in 
contact with a government official decided to create a civilian casualty claim 
to pressure international forces to cease the [operation]. They burned hands and 
legs of some of their children and sent them to the hospital," a second 
participant said.

The anger greeting this message showed the political challenges inherent in 
dealing with allegations of civilian casualties, particularly in remote and 
dangerous areas where investigations prove difficult. The Karzai government has 
repeatedly taken the U.S.-led coalition to task for killing noncombatants over 
the years.

"Killing 60 people, and then blaming the killing on those same people, rather 
than apologizing for any deaths? This is inhuman," one Afghan official said. 
"This is a really terrible situation."

The U.S. military is reviewing all operations, including other airstrikes, in 
Ghaziabad during the three to four days in question. "The review of these 
engagements is still underway, so there's always the possibility one of them may 
have resulted in civilian casualties, but regardless, reports from elders in the 
region appear unrealistically high and unsupported by anything we know to date," 
Smith said. The investigation "is still ongoing, so no final judgments are being 
made at this time."

A senior U.S. military official responsible for Konar province said, "We haven't 
seen much evidence of many civilian casualties."

Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.


© 2011 The Washington Post Company