US general visits Afghan bomb site for death claim

Afghan officials say six women and two children were killed in a recent US air strike.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
afghanistan coffins 248.88 (photo credit: )
afghanistan coffins 248.88
(photo credit: )
A US general traveled to western Afghanistan on Wednesday to investigate claims that six women and two children were killed in a US air strike, officials said. The US coalition said in a statement that a strike Monday in the Gozara district of Herat province killed 15 militants, including a leader named Ghulam Yahya Akbari. But Ekremuddin Yawar, a police commander for western Afghanistan, said six women and two children were among the dead, along with five men. He said the group was living in tents in the remote Afghan countryside. Civilian deaths have been a huge source of friction between the US and President Hamid Karzai, who has increased demands that American troops avoid killing civilians. In response to Yawar's allegation, US Brig. Gen. Michael Ryan traveled to Gozara district on Wednesday to meet with officials "to see what the situation is," said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a US military spokeswoman. For now, the US is standing behind its information that 15 militants were killed, she said. Photographs obtained by The Associated Press from the strike site in Herat show the body of a young boy - bloodied and dirtied - laying on a white shroud. Afghan men can be seen digging about a dozen fresh graves. Dead sheep and destroyed tents can also be seen. An ethnic group of Afghans known as Kuchis travel the countryside with livestock and live in tents. The investigative team's trip to Herat comes one day after the UN released a report saying that a record 2,118 civilians died in the Afghan war last year, a 40 percent increase over 2007. The report said US, NATO and Afghan forces killed 829 civilians, or 39 percent of the total. Of those, 552 deaths were blamed on air strikes. After increasingly angry demands by Karzai for more US-Afghan military cooperation, the American and Afghan militaries this month announced plans to increase the number of Afghans who will take part in US operations, a step aimed at reducing civilian deaths. Karzai over the weekend said he hoped the new agreement would also put an end to night raids - targeted missions by US Special Operations Forces that seek to capture or kill high-ranking militant leaders. Such operations often kill innocent Afghans as well, either in air strikes or in gun fights after villagers try to defend their homes against unknown invaders. US President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced plans to deploy an additional 17,000 US troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 33,000 American forces already in the country. That plan increases the chances that more civilians could be killed in 2009 than 2008. US commanders have requested more troops to battle an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency. Militant attacks have spiked in the last three years and insurgents now control wide swaths of territory. Obama has promised to increase the US focus on Afghanistan as the military draws down troops in Iraq.