[A-List] Fw: US Bombing Carnage In Afghanistan - Also

["Christopher Black" <bar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Rozoff" <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 6:38 AM
Subject: US Bombing Carnage In Afghanistan - Also


>
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030409/ap_on_re_as/afgha
n_civilians_killed&cid=516&ncid=716
>
> Associated Press
> April, 9, 2003
>
> 11 Civilians Killed in Afghan Bombing
> By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
>
> -One of the planes then dropped a 1,000-pound
> laser-guided bomb, but it missed its intended target,
> the military said.
> -Forces loyal to ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul
> Rashid Dostum and those of his Tajik rival, Gen. Atta
> Mohammed, battled with automatic weapons for four
> hours Tuesday in Maimana, the capital of Faryab
> province, said Sayed Noor Ullah, one of Dostum's
> senior officials.
>
>
>
> KABUL, Afghanistan - An American warplane mistakenly
> bombed a house, killing 11 civilians near
> Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, the U.S.
> military said Wednesday.
>
> The killings in Shkin, 130 miles south of Kabul,
> happened after unidentified assailants attacked a
> checkpoint of Afghan soldiers allied with American
> forces near the town, the military said in a written
> statement.
>
> Two Harrier attack aircraft were called in and spotted
> two groups of five to 10 enemy fighters each. The jets
> attacked one of the groups with their cannons.
>
> One of the planes then dropped a 1,000-pound
> laser-guided bomb, but it missed its intended target,
> the military said.
>
> It called the deaths a "tragic incident" and said the
> bombing was being investigated. There was no immediate
> reaction from Afghan authorities.
>
> Four Afghan fighters were injured in the initial
> fighting and evacuated to a nearby U.S. base, the U.S.
> military said. They were in stable condition.
>
> No U.S. soldiers were injured. It was not clear what
> happened to the enemy fighters.
>
> "Coalition forces never intentionally target civilian
> locations," the statement said.
>
> The last major civilian casualties caused by
> American-led forces in Afghanistan occurred on July 1,
> when an Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked several
> villages in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
> Forty-eight civilians were killed and 117 were
> wounded, Afghan officials said.
>
> Survivors said most of the dead were women and
> children who were attending a wedding in the town of
> Deh Rawood. They said the only gunfire from the area
> came from celebrants shooting their rifles into the
> air.
>
> More than 10,000 foreign troops - 8,000 of them
> American - have been hunting down rebel fighters from
> the former Taliban regime, the al-Qaida network and
> their allies, including former Prime Minister
> Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
>
> There have been several rocket attacks and ambushes in
> recent weeks near Shkin, a key border crossing point
> from Pakistan. U.S. military officials believe rebel
> groups are launching incursions into Afghanistan from
> Pakistan.
>
> Afghan authorities say Taliban remnants are
> reorganizing in an effort to destabilize the fledgling
> government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai.
>
> Southern Afghanistan in particular has been wracked by
> attacks in the last few weeks by suspected Taliban
> fighters. An International Red Cross worker was
> killed, and a U.S. military convoy ambushed. Two U.S.
> servicemen died in that attack.
>
> Also Wednesday, Afghan authorities dispatched a team
> of mediators to northwestern Afghanistan to defuse
> tensions between two rival factions that clashed the
> day before.
>
> Forces loyal to ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid
> Dostum and those of his Tajik rival, Gen. Atta
> Mohammed, battled with automatic weapons for four
> hours Tuesday in Maimana, the capital of Faryab
> province, said Sayed Noor Ullah, one of Dostum's
> senior officials.
>
> There were no immediate reports of casualties and it
> was not clear what sparked the fighting, Ullah said by
> telephone from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
> Maimana was quiet on Wednesday, he said.
>
> Dostum and Mohammed agreed to work together after the
> Taliban government fell in 2001, but battles have
> broken out repeatedly between the two sides.
>
> Ullah characterized Tuesday's skirmish as a "local
> dispute" between two commanders - Dostum's Mohammad
> Hashim and Mohammed's Gulam Farooq.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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