Afghanistan: Another 31 civilian casualties from coalition bombing

August 9, 2008:  According to a report by Ahmad Javed Javed of the Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN), 31 civilians including one woman and children were killed and injured as coalition troops bombed Tagab district in central Kapisa province.
"Maj. Gen. Matiullah Safi, police chief of the province told Pajhwok Afghan News that Jwe Bar village of the district was bombed at noon when two foreign forces were injured in a Taliban ambush in the village.
"He said initial reports revealed that more than ten people have been killed in the bombing but it was not certain whether the killed were Taliban or civilians.

"However a resident of the village told this news agency that the bombing took place after the attack of Taliban.
"He said after the airstrike people gathered on the spot and the air force again bombed the gathering killing 15 people including a woman, four men and children.
"A parliamentarian from Kapisa province, Haji Mohammad Iqbal Safi on the other hand said that Taliban attack took place in Korghal village while the airstrike was in Jwe Bar village which was eight kilometers away from Korghal.
"He said that 19 people were killed in the airstrike who were all civilians.
"However, Ahmad, a local claiming to be the regional spokesman for Taliban said Taliban received no casualties while 20 civilians have been killed in the air strike."
With the mounting civilian toll of bombing by the US-led occupation forces, it is no wonder the occupiers are losing the battle for "hearts and minds".
The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an organization representing about 100 aid agencies in Afghanistan, recently reported that about 2,500 people have been killed in fighting this year, 1,000 of them civilians.
Even the US-propped President Hamid Karzai had to admit on August 10, according to a Reuters report: "The use of air force in the campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan, apart from civilian casualties ... has not had any other fruit to the people of Afghanistan and will not lead in the success against terrorism."
According to an AFP report, Karzai urged his Western military allies to change their strategy in the "war on terror" and target extremist hideouts in neighbouring Pakistan rather villages in Afghanistan where civilians could be killed.
"The war on terrorism is not in Afghan villages," Karzai said.
"Therefore, the use of air force in the war against terrorism in the Afghan villages will have no result but causing civilian casualties."
Scores of civilians have been killed during operations by international forces pounding militants in Afghan villages with the air strikes said to be up 40 percent this year over last, the AFP report added.
Source: RAWA, news agency reports