Pentagon Still Killing Afghan Civilians Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 30, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- PENTAGON STILL KILLING CIVILIANS IN AFGHANISTAN By G. Dunkel When a single U.S. soldier was killed May 19 in eastern Afghanistan, it made national news in this country. But there's very little news about the fact that the United States is still killing civilians in Afghanistan. Ten were killed May 16 by a U.S. AC-130 attack plane, sometimes described as a flying heavy-machine-gun nest. The circumstances were reported in wildly different ways. The Australian media talked about a two-day running battle with Al Qaeda-Taliban forces that nearly overran their patrols, set ambushes for the forces that came to relieve them and put up a bang-up fight until the British sent in about 1,000 troops. One Afghan press report described a struggle between two tribes over some trees and land, where a few shots were exchanged until the U.S. plane came blazing in. Another Afghan report described a wedding celebration where some rifles were fired into the air. Whatever the circumstances, they all agreed that the United States killed at least 10 civilians. On May 12, when U.S. Special Forces troops raided a small village in central Afghanistan, the hometown of a major Taliban leader, five farmers hiding in a wheat field were shot dead and 20 others taken off to a U.S.-run prison. According to Marc Herold, an economics professor at the University of New Hampshire, U.S. bombs killed at least 3,780 civilians between Oct. 7 and May 14. Herold, who makes clear that he opposes the U.S. war in Afghanistan, uses corroborated reports from aid agencies, the United Nations, eyewitnesses, TV stations, newspapers and news agencies from around the world. According to a study by a journalism school in New Zealand, Herold's figures are sometimes too low. (The Herald, Jan 17) Currently, 4,600 troops from 19 countries are serving under British command in Afghanistan, according to the May 16 Ottawa Citizen. But U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks is still the overall commander. Troops from Canada and 18 other countries currently in Afghanistan provide a fig leaf for the role of the U.S. as hit man in this bloody war against an impoverished country. But the U.S. Air Force flies most of the combat air missions. The United States is spending some $30 million a day on its military missions in Afghanistan. The "global war on terrorism," according to the Pentagon, has cost $17 billion since Sept. 11. (The Scotsman, May 17) Gen. Maurice Baril, a former chief of defense in Canada, released a heavily censored interim report May 14 that offered almost no insight into what happened about a month ago when a U.S. jet killed four Canadian soldiers during a night exercise. Senior Canadian military leaders told the Canadian media they do not expect a full accounting, purportedly because of the need to preserve the safety of troops still battling Al Qaeda and Taliban resistance. A few days after the Baril report, Gen. Franks talked to about 400 members of the regiment that was involved in the incident. He congratulated them on the success of their latest mission, which involved digging some bodies up from a cemetery where the bodies of suspected Al Qaeda and/or Taliban fighters were supposed to be buried, and crushing the bones to extract the DNA. The headline in the May 16 Ottawa Citizen read: 'Bone-crushing' Canadian mission wins praise. Bush and the Pentagon need to pretend the war against Afghanistan is finished so they can focus on Iraq. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews-on@wwpublish.com. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-05.29.02-01:21:58-22008