Women children among 18 Afghans dead in Obama wedding strike – report (PHOTOS)
http://www.rt.com/news/afghanistan-civilians-killed-nato-154/

Published: 06 June, 2012, 15:45
Edited: 06 June, 2012, 20:03

Afghan villagers sit on the back of a vehicle carrying dead bodies of children who were killed in a NATO airstrike on a home in Sajawand village in Logar province south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

TAGS: Children, Conflict, Military, NATO, Central Asia, Afghanistan

A NATO airstrike in the eastern Afghan province of Logar has killed 18 people, including women and children, local officials report. A NATO spokesperson said a team had been deployed to investigate the claims of civilian casualties.

Afghan authorities say the pre-dawn attack aimed at militants in the area hit a wedding. An AP photographer at the scene reported seeing the bodies of five women, seven children and six men piled in vans. AFP news agency also released a photo with victims piled into the back of a vehicle.

Local villagers are now reportedly driving the bodies to the capital of Logar province to protest the NATO strike which they say hit a house in the district of Baraki Barak.

NATO says it has received no reports of civilians killed in the pre-dawn operation targeting a Taliban leader.

ISAF released a statement, confirming a pre-dawn operation aimed at the capture of a Taliban leader in Logar.

“During the operation, insurgents attacked the Afghan and coalition troops with small-arms fire and a grenade,” said the NATO statement.

In response, alliance forces “returned fire and requested a precision airstrike.”

¬Meanwhile, multiple blasts killed 22 people and wounded at least 50 others as three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday.
One bomber detonated a three-wheeled motorbike filled with explosives, police said. Then, as people rushed to assist the wounded, two other bombers walked up to the scene and blew themselves up.

The attack took place about five kilometers from the main gate of a massive military installation run by NATO, and some 500 meters from an Afghan military base.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
¬
Civilian casualties mounting

Reports of NATO actions in Afghanistan causing civilian casualties are not rare. In the end of May, local officials from the eastern province of Paktia claimed that a coalition strike killed an Afghan family, including six children.

In February Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused NATO of killing seven children in a strike in the north-east of the country.

The casualties, however, do not always come from air strikes. In March an alleged shooting rampage by a NATO soldier resulted in 17 civilian deaths in the province of Kandahar. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was accused of the massacre, was whisked out of the country to a US detention center.

Civilian deaths resulting from US-led coalition actions have been a bone of contention in Afghanistan for quite some time. Karzai has regularly condemned such events, saying the strategic partnership is meaningless if the lives of Afghan people are not safe.

Last year saw more than 3,000 Afghan civilians killed in violence according to a UN report. The document attributed 14 per cent of these deaths to actions by international and Afghan troops.

Afghan villagers search for dead bodies of people who were killed in a NATO airstrike on a home in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

An Afghan villager stands at a house which was hit by a NATO airstrike in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

An Afghan villager stands at a house which was hit by a NATO airstrike in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

Women children among 18 Afghans dead in Obama wedding strike – report (PHOTOS)
http://www.rt.com/news/afghanistan-civilians-killed-nato-154/

Published: 06 June, 2012, 15:45
Edited: 06 June, 2012, 20:03

Afghan villagers sit on the back of a vehicle carrying dead bodies of children who were killed in a NATO airstrike on a home in Sajawand village in Logar province south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

TAGS: Children, Conflict, Military, NATO, Central Asia, Afghanistan

A NATO airstrike in the eastern Afghan province of Logar has killed 18 people, including women and children, local officials report. A NATO spokesperson said a team had been deployed to investigate the claims of civilian casualties.

Afghan authorities say the pre-dawn attack aimed at militants in the area hit a wedding. An AP photographer at the scene reported seeing the bodies of five women, seven children and six men piled in vans. AFP news agency also released a photo with victims piled into the back of a vehicle.

Local villagers are now reportedly driving the bodies to the capital of Logar province to protest the NATO strike which they say hit a house in the district of Baraki Barak.

NATO says it has received no reports of civilians killed in the pre-dawn operation targeting a Taliban leader.

ISAF released a statement, confirming a pre-dawn operation aimed at the capture of a Taliban leader in Logar.

“During the operation, insurgents attacked the Afghan and coalition troops with small-arms fire and a grenade,” said the NATO statement.

In response, alliance forces “returned fire and requested a precision airstrike.”

¬Meanwhile, multiple blasts killed 22 people and wounded at least 50 others as three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday.
One bomber detonated a three-wheeled motorbike filled with explosives, police said. Then, as people rushed to assist the wounded, two other bombers walked up to the scene and blew themselves up.

The attack took place about five kilometers from the main gate of a massive military installation run by NATO, and some 500 meters from an Afghan military base.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
¬
Civilian casualties mounting

Reports of NATO actions in Afghanistan causing civilian casualties are not rare. In the end of May, local officials from the eastern province of Paktia claimed that a coalition strike killed an Afghan family, including six children.

In February Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused NATO of killing seven children in a strike in the north-east of the country.

The casualties, however, do not always come from air strikes. In March an alleged shooting rampage by a NATO soldier resulted in 17 civilian deaths in the province of Kandahar. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was accused of the massacre, was whisked out of the country to a US detention center.

Civilian deaths resulting from US-led coalition actions have been a bone of contention in Afghanistan for quite some time. Karzai has regularly condemned such events, saying the strategic partnership is meaningless if the lives of Afghan people are not safe.

Last year saw more than 3,000 Afghan civilians killed in violence according to a UN report. The document attributed 14 per cent of these deaths to actions by international and Afghan troops.

Afghan villagers search for dead bodies of people who were killed in a NATO airstrike on a home in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

An Afghan villager stands at a house which was hit by a NATO airstrike in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

An Afghan villager stands at a house which was hit by a NATO airstrike in Sajawand village in Logar province, south of Kabul on June 6, 2012 (AFP Photo/Sabawoon Amarkhil)

US forces burned bodies of Afghans after massacre’
A mourner cries over the bodies of the Afghan civilians, shot by US forces, in the Alkozai village in Kandahar Province in southeastern Afghanistan on March 11, 2012.
Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:46AM GMT
Afghan eyewitnesses say US troopers have burnt nearly a dozen bodies of the Afghan victims, whom American servicemen had killed during an earlier massacre.

Early Sunday, US forces opened fire on Afghan civilians inside their homes in the district of Panjwaii in the southern province of Kandahar, killing at least 17 civilians and injuring several others. The Taliban militants said at least 50 people were killed in the massacre.

Earlier reports said the assassin was a lone US sergeant.

Villagers said the US forces later collected 11 of the bodies, including those of four girls under the age of six, and set them on fire.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the bloodshed, calling it an inhuman, intentional, and unforgiveable act.

“When Afghan people are killed deliberately by US forces, this action is murder and terror and an unforgivable action,” Karzai said in a statement.

“The government and the people of Afghanistan demand an explanation from the United States government of this incident.”

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan have been a major source of tension between Kabul and Washington.

The outrages came in the wake of violent clashes in several Afghan provinces over recent desecration of the Holy Qur’an by the United States forces at the US-run Bagram Airbase in the province of Parwan in northeastern Afghanistan. The violence left over 30 people, including six American forces, dead and around 180 others injured.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence there of tens of thousands of US-led troops.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/231218.html