[Bloquez l'empire!] canada in afghanistan

[mary foster]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060523.wxafghan23/BNSto
ry/Afghanistan/home

Afghan air strike complicates Canadian mission

GEOFFREY YORK

>From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - With puffy face and red eyes, 12-year-old Mahmood
was still fighting back tears as he told his story yesterday.

He had gotten the news in a phone call at dawn. His entire family -- mother,
father, three sisters, three brothers -- had been killed by a coalition
bombing attack on his village near Kandahar.

"I lost my family," he whispered between his sobs. "Now I am all alone."

Nearby, in an intensive-care hospital bed, his unconscious three-year-old
cousin was twitching and panting for air. He, too, was a victim of the
bombing. Two of his uncles were being treated in the same ward, both badly
wounded, one in a coma.

At least 17 civilians -- and perhaps 25 or more -- were killed in the
coalition attack on Taliban forces yesterday and at least 15 civilians were
injured. Twenty Taliban insurgents were confirmed killed, the coalition said
in a press release, but the rebel toll could be as high as 50.

Many houses, and even a religious school, were hit by the bombs between 11
p.m., Sunday and 5 a.m., yesterday, survivors said.

It was the heaviest civilian death toll since Canada took command of
military operations in southern Afghanistan this year. It was also one of
the highest civilian death tolls recorded in Kandahar province since the
ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001. And it was the latest sign of a
mounting surge of violence that has killed about 300 Afghans in the past
week -- twice the death toll recorded in Iraq in the same period.

The civilian casualties and mounting violence will make it harder for
Canada's soldiers to continue the campaign to win support from ordinary
Afghans.

Two key questions about the battle remained unanswered last night: Who
authorized the operation and which coalition forces were involved. Canadian
military spokesmen said no Canadian forces were involved, but coalition
spokesman Major Scott Lundy refused to say which forces had launched the
battle. And he refused to say who had authorized the attack.

Brigadier-General David Fraser, the Canadian who commands the coalition
forces in southern Afghanistan, was "consulted and informed" about the
attack, but the decision was made by "higher headquarters," Major Lundy
said. He refused to identify the higher authorities who approved the
bombing.

There were strong hints that the assault was a special-forces operation,
which would normally be kept secret. The forces hit unexpectedly stiff
resistance from about 200 Taliban in the village. When they got into trouble
around midnight on Sunday, they called in U.S. aircraft to attack the
village.

Apache helicopters and an A-10 Warthog were among the aircraft called.

"The Taliban fighters moved onto rooftops and into the window wells of the
homes and continued to lay down fire," Major Lundy said last night.

"Coalition forces returned fire and called in air strikes to subdue the fire
and allow them to continue their operation. . . .

"We recognize there are parents who have been killed, children who have been
injured, and that's a terrible thing. It's unfortunate.

"And we hope the people will understand that the coalition goes to great
effort to protect them and avoid killing or injuring Afghan citizens, but
it's not always possible."

The battle began in the village of Azizi, about 50 kilometres west of
Kandahar, when the coalition attacked a group of Taliban gathering for a
meeting.

"There was still resistance when coalition forces entered the building,"
Major Lundy said. "Because the coalition forces were under pressure, and
taking a lot of fire, there was a requirement to use any and all available
means to stop that fire. It was a very intense fight. The Taliban felt they
had to hide behind the Afghan people. It was rather cowardly on their part."

He acknowledged that the Taliban seemed stronger than expected. "We have
noted that there have been sizable forces where perhaps we thought there
were smaller forces."

Despite earlier reports of a coalition investigation into the deaths, he
said nobody from the coalition is in the village to investigate the civilian
deaths.

He also suggested that some of the injured civilians might have been Taliban
fighters, although he acknowledged he had no evidence of it.

The battles here are becoming more intense daily.

Last week in the same district, Canadian troops called in a devastating air
strike from a U.S. B-1 stealth bomber, which dropped a 500-pound bomb on a
residential compound, killing an estimated 15 to 20 rebels, after an ambush
in which Captain Nichola Goddard was killed.

Kandahar's provincial governor, Assadullah Khalid, tried to assuage local
anger yesterday by visiting the hospital and handing out cash to injured
victims. Each person was given the equivalent of about $450.

Mahmood, the boy whose family perished in the bombing, escaped death only
because he was a student in Kandahar City, away from his village. At the
hospital yesterday, he sobbed and wiped his eyes repeatedly.

He was clutching a plastic bag with three mangos that someone had given him.

Another survivor, 23-year-old Mohammed Rafiq, suffered injuries to his head
and arm when his mud-brick house was hit by a bomb. He said the Taliban
fighters had come to his village about two days earlier to demand food and
shelter.

"They had heavy weapons and nobody could say anything against them." he
said.

"They said they were coming here for a holy war. We can't say anything
against them, and we can't say anything against the coalition."

The Taliban were about 30 metres away when the bomb landed on his house.

Abdul Baqi, an intensive-care doctor who treated the bombing victims, said
the coalition should be more careful in its bombing operations.

"They killed many civilians by mistake," he said. "I'm not happy about it.
They killed and injured many innocent people."