Clinton expresses 'deep regret' over deadly US airstrike in Afghanistan
(Abdul Malek)
An injured Afghan child from Bala Baluk after the airstrike
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Hillary Clinton has expressed "deep regret" that American jets bombed two villages in western Afghanistan yesterday killing at least 30 men, women and children.
The Secretary of State addressed the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan as anger grew over the loss of innocent life.
“We will work very hard with your governments and your leaders to avoid the loss of innocent civilian life and we deeply, deeply regret that loss,” she said in Washington.
No exact casualty toll could be confirmed after the incident in Farah province, but the provincial governor and police chief estimate civilian deaths at more than 100.
President Karzai of Afghanistan has ordered an inquiry into the killings, and said earlier that he would raise the issue when he holds his first face-to-face meeting with President Obama in Washington later today.
He thanked Mrs Clinton for “showing concern and regret” and added that “we hope we can work together to completely reduce civilian casualties in the struggle against terrorism”.
The US Secretary of State told a joint meeting with Mr Karzai and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan that the military would work hard to limit future casualties.
“I wish to express my personal regret and certainly the sympathy of our administration on the loss of civilian life in Afghanistan,” she said. “We deeply regret it. We don’t know all of the circumstances or causes. And there will be a joint investigation by your government and ours.
“Any loss of life, any loss of innocent life, is particularly painful,” she said. “And I want to convey to the people of both Afghanistan and Pakistan that . . . we deeply, deeply regret that loss.”
Workers for the international Red Cross, who reached the scene yesterday afternoon, reported seeing dozens of bodies in each of the two locations they visited.
"There were bodies, there were graves, and there were people burying bodies when we were there," said Jessica Barry, a Red Cross spokesman.
"There were women and there were children who were killed. It seemed they were trying to shelter in houses when they were hit."
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops during battles with insurgents are a raw political subject in Afghanistan, stoking anti-US sentiment, after a previous US military operation last August left 90 people dead in Azizabad.
Then, the US army at first denied it had killed anyone. But, after inquiries by the Afghan government and the United Nations the death toll was confirmed.
The following month General David Kiernan, the US's top commander in Afghanistan, issued a directive ordering US troops to consider breaking away from a firefight in populated areas rather than pursue militants into villages, in a bid to reduce deaths.
In the latest incident, fighting broke out on Monday between local security forces and Taleban fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran who had gathered in Western Farah near the border with Iran. Abdul Ghafar Watandar, the Farah province police chief, said that 25 militants and three police were killed in battles near the village of Ganjabad, in Bala Buluk district.
Exactly what happened then is unclear. Villagers have told Afghan officials that when the fighting erupted they had sent women, children and the elderly to shelter in several compounds in the nearby village of Gerani, three miles to the east.
Mr Watandar said that Taleban guerrillas had herded civilians into houses in both Gerani and Ganjabad.
"The fighting was going on in another village, but the Taleban escaped to these two villages where they used people as human shields. The air strikes killed about 120 civilians and destroyed 17 houses," he said.
The deaths apparently occurred when US Marine special forces called in air strikes on compounds where it was believed that Taleban fighters were sheltering.
Abdul Basir Khan, a member of Farah's provincial council, said that villagers had told him that more than 150 civilians had died, but he had no way of knowing whether the claim was true.
The US says that sometimes the Taleban force villagers to lie about civilian deaths, in a war of propaganda.
Mr Khan confirmed that angry and grief-stricken villagers had loaded a number of dead bodies onto trucks and drove them into Farah city yesterday to show the provincial governor. He estimated that there were about 30 bodies.
Rohul Amin, the governor of Farah province, said he feared that 100 civilians had been killed, but that the Taleban were in control of the area, making it difficult to confirm numbers. He too said that the Taleban had used villagers as human shields. Mr Watandar, the provincial police chief, said that the toll could be even higher.
If confirmed, those figures could make it the single deadliest incident for Afghan civilians since the Allied invasion in 2001.
The Red Cross spokesman said that a first aid volunteer for Afghanistan's Red Crescent was among the dead, along with 13 members of his family.
Meanwhile a trickle of wounded has arrived at the hospital in Farah city. A girl called Shafiqa, whose head was bandaged and who had lost two toes in the bombing, said: "We were at home when the bombing started. Seven members of my family were killed."
Mr Karzai has sent a joint US and Afghan delegation to investigate what happened. A statement from Mr Karzai's office said: "The president has termed the loss of civilians unjustifiable and unacceptable and will raise it with Obama."
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