[A-List] Afghanistan: 'humanitarian' intervention and blowback continue

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Taliban target 'left 10 days before' US air strike killed nine children

MARTIN WILLIAMS
The Herald, December 08 2003

THE Taliban militant targeted by a US air strike that killed nine children
in Afghanistan had left the area 10 days earlier, according to locals.

US officials claimed they had killed Mullah Wazir, a guerrilla terrorist
commander, in the attack on the village of Hutala in the Ghazni province at
the weekend. They also regretted the loss of innocent life.

There was one adult killed, but local Afghans said it was a cousin of Wazir.

A statement from the US military said the "tragic incident" would be
investigated. Hamid Karzai, the president, has expressed his shock at the
incident and said his government had sent a team of investigators to the
scene.

He said US forces should ensure that future operations were better
co-ordinated with the Afghan government.

The UN said it was "profoundly distressed" by the children's deaths and
called for a swift inquiry.

Patches of dried blood and a pile of children's hats and shoes were the only
evidence that remained of the bombing raid. The children had been playing in
a walled compound of a house when two US A-10 aircraft fired a volley of
rockets and bullets. An Afghan official said Wazir may have been located via
a satellite phone call.

"They were just playing ball and then the shots came down," said Hamidullah,
a distraught villager who said his eight-year-old son, Habibullah, was among
those killed. Hamidullah said the man killed with the children was Abdul
Hamid, a cousin of Wazir. Another villager said Wazir had left two weeks
earlier.

Only one house was hit. "It has not been ascertained if Mullah Wazir was
killed or not, but the house was his," said Haji Assadullah, governor of
Ghazni province. A senior Afghan official in Ghazni said he was sure Wazir
was not in his compound at the time of the attack.

Major Christopher West of the US Army said troops located the suspect at an
"isolated, rural site". Coalition forces would "make every effort" to
determine the cause of the civilian deaths, he said.

In another setback for efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, two Turkish engineers
and an Afghan were kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants outside Kabul,
officials said.