How not to end terrorism-Kill civilians...

MrBrian wrote:

Luke Harding, South Asia correspondent and Matthew Engel in Washington guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday July 2 2002 02.23 BST

American military officials were last night trying to explain one of their worst blunders during the nine-month war in Afghanistan after a US plane mistakenly targeted a house full of wedding guests, killing at least 30 of them.

The bombing happened at 1am yesterday in a village in the rugged and mountainous central region of Oruzgan, 105 miles north of the southern city of Kandahar.

Survivors of the attack said several guests had just fired their Kalashnikovs into the air, as is traditional in Pashtun wedding ceremonies. A US air patrol over-head wrongly concluded it was coming under fire and responded with devastating force.

An AC-130 helicopter gun-ship and B-52 bomber blasted the scene, leaving scores of people dead - among them women and children - and at least 40 injured.

Pentagon officials last night conceded that at least one bomb dropped on the village of Kakarak was "errant". But their initial response was confused and they were unable to explain why the pilots had failed to establish whom they were attacking in a region clearly abandoned by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters several months ago.

"There was no one to help last night," one resident, Abdul Saboor, said. "We managed to transfer some of the wounded to Kandahar in the morning. Some of the foreigners' choppers also came to help."

"There are no Taliban or al-Qaida or Arabs here. These people were all civilians, women and children"

Hospital officials said a number of wounded were being brought to Kandahar, a day's journey away by road. Most of the dead and injured were women and children, they said. A six-year-old girl named Paliko was brought to the hospital still wearing her party dress. She was injured, but villagers said all members of her family were killed.

"Their families are gone. The villagers brought these children and they have no parents. Everyone says that their parents are dead," Mohammed Nadir, a nurse, said.

The incident is deeply embarrassing for the American military, which has so far had little success in fulfilling its initial war aim of hunting down Osama bin Laden. Most senior Taliban figures together with remnants of al-Qaida decamped to Pakistan's tribal regions late last year, intelligence sources believe.

In Washington, the Pentagon yesterday admitted that at least one bomb dropped by western warplanes had missed its target, but it could not confirm claims that members of a wedding party had been killed.

According to local Afghans, 11 members of a wedding party were killed in a similar incident in May in the village of Balkhiel, 30 miles north of the town of Khost.

MrBrian wrote:

Well from october-december 2002
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Thursday, 3 January, 2002, 16:14 GMT
Afghanistan's civilian deaths mount
BBC News

The number of Afghan civilians killed by US bombs has surpassed the death toll of the 11 September attacks, according to a study by an American academic.

Nearly 3,800 Afghans died between 7 October and 7 December, University of New Hampshire Professor Marc Herold said in a research report.

Professor Herold has been gathering data on civilian casualties since 7 October by culling information from news agencies, major newspapers and first hand accounts.

His report, which places the death toll at 3,767, lists the number of casualties, location, type of weapon and source of information.

"In fact the figure I came up with is a very, very conservative estimate," Professor Herold said in a radio interview.

"I think that a much more realistic figure would be around 5,000. You know for Afghanistan, 3,700 to 5,000 is a really substantial number."

Professor Herold said his calculations are based only on deaths reported in the mainstream media, so would not include those in remote areas of Afghanistan.

It also omits those killed indirectly, when air strikes cut off their access to hospitals, food or electricity.

Also exempt are bomb victims who later died of their injuries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1740538.stm

I also read that a study was done by a some respected sources that over 7.000 civilians were killed by US and NATO forces from sept 2007-Present.

Also from old injuries by US and NATO bullets and bombs, blown up water supplies and so on.

Keeping in mind that bombs dont always kill when first dropped, but the injuries people get from being close to them and later suffering from those injuires leading to their deaths.

MrBrian wrote:

Of course! and in Iraq the Cancer rate has risen huge amounts due to all the DU that was dropped and white phosphorus.

The long term results will go on for many years, long after these bombs have gone off.

The cluster bombs also will be killing for many years. Even in Lebanon, months later after Israel dropped so many of them. They started going off killing people. Same thing in Afghanistan.