Free gas will get you killed in Afghanistan

[khad]

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/07/at-least-70-civilians-reported-killed-in-afghan-air-strike/print/



At Least 70 Civilians Reported Killed in Afghan Air Strike
Posted By Jason Ditz On September 7, 2009 @ 4:43 pm In Uncategorized | No Comments (http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/07/at-least-70-civilians-reported-killed-in-afghan-air-strike/print/#comments_controls)

Last Friday’s deadly US air strike in the Kunduz Province of Afghanistan killed 130 people, according to the district governor (http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1499703.php/Afghan-governor-says-over-130-killed-in-NATO-airstrike-spokesman-Roundup) of the area, and the human rights group Afghan Rights Monitor says its survey reveals that 70 civilians were among the dead (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/07/international/i095051D56.DTL).
http://news.antiwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/kunduz.jpg
The strike, in which a US jet destroyed a pair of hijacked fuel tankers with a missile (http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/07/at-least-70-civilians-reported-killed-in-afghan-air-strike/2009/09/04/us-kills-at-least-90-in-afghan-air-strike/), causing a massive explosion in the village, has come under considerable scrutiny amid claims that the German commander who ordered the strike violated rules designed to prevent killing civilians. At the time of the attack the hijackers had brought the tankers to a village and invited locals to syphon fuel from them. Germany defended the attack saying the tankers might’ve been used to attack a nearby German base.

The attack was condemned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who claimed the tankers were immobilized in a riverbed at the time (http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1499620.php/Karzai-slams-deadly-NATO-airstrike-Roundup) of the attacks and asked why the international forces didn’t try to reclaim the tankers with ground troops instead of lobbing missiles at them.

The Afghan government and NATO are both conducting probes into the attack, though Germany has hotly disputed the claims of both and insisted the killings were appropriate. The Taliban also released their own probe into the attack, providing the names of 79 civilians they said died.

I suppose that's one way to "civilize the savages" for freeloading.

[Uncle Hank]

Disgusting. The assumption that the tankers could be used to attack the nearby base is ridiculous, don't they have military checkpoints and such near the bases to prevent said attacks?

[Rjevan]

This is currently causing great disgust and a huge political debate in Germany and raised once more the question if the Bundeswehr should withdraw from Afghanistan. For the first time since months the CDU (Chancellor Merkel's party, conservatives) and their dream partner for the next government coalition, the FDP (free market liberals, party of employers and rich) have lost their majority in "who would you elect?"-polls and Die Linke (the left) which asks for a withdrawal of the Bundeswehr for years now got 14% instead of the usual 10% in the polls.

Merkel is justifying the air strike and talkes about "prejudices" and "wrong numbers" but the situation gets worse for the government due to the statement of the Defense Minister a few hours after the strike, claming that there "definitely were no civil victims"...

The governor of the province where the strike happened:

...praised the German army on Monday for ordering an air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers last Friday...

the German commander who ordered the strike, Colonel Georg Klein, "made the right decision at the right time and acted in a very level-headed way." ...

He said he didn't know how many civilians were killed in the air strike. "But the Germans have the support of the population. We didn't receive any of the complaints one usually gets in cases where civilians are killed... Anyone in the vicinity of the fuel tankers must have been criminal or a supporter of the Taliban, he said. The US criticism of the attack appeared to be a gut reaction, he added. "The Americans probably didn't eat well and had bad dreams."

So this must be obviously lies:


Some eyewitnesses reported seeing more than 100 dead civilians at the site. Ghulam Mahyodin, a man who lives in Char Dara province, said his son had been among a group of people from a nearby village trying to siphon oil from the tankers. He said the Taliban had already left the area. "My son burned to death," said Mahyodin. "I expect the government to conduct a serious investigation."

One villager told SPIEGEL ONLINE by telephone that she had heard noises coming from the river at around two o'clock in the morning. Her husband and son had gone there to see what was going on. "They weren't Taliban, they just wanted to know what was going on," she said.


Links:
-Afghan provincial governor praises German Army (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,647494,00.html)
-Bad times for government and defense minister (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,647398,00.html)
-Merkel hits back at NATO criticism (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,647679,00.html)

[willdw79]

What do you expect from imperialists?

They are not in power because they are nice, they are rutheless.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Queue next gen RAF?

This, to me, is interesting news. its showing the WHOLE NATO force in Afghanistan is not innocent and incapable of the killing of civilians in Afghanistan.

I really want to see Our Bombs (http://www.ourbombs.com/). i would like to thank a fellow revlefter about bringing that up a few months ago.

[NecroCommie]

Hmph... How much does it take to convince morons that the wars in middle east have nothing to do with "helping" the local populace. :glare:

[Andy Bowden]

Nato have banned booze at their HQ, as their staff were apparently too hungover to give an account of how this bombing was allowed - http://socialistleftfield.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/im-afraid-to-say-nato-was-very-very-drunk-at-the-time/