US Slaughters More than 100 More Afghans

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit


Over 100 Said Killed in U.S. Afghan Air Raid 

KABUL, Dec 31 (Reuters)--Afghan villagers said on Monday an American
air strike killed more than 100 civilians as U.S. forces combed
rugged mountain terrain for fugitive Osama bin Laden.

A Reuters cameraman in the stricken village in eastern Paktia
province said he could see huge craters blasted by bombs. Amid the
destruction were scraps of flesh, pools of blood and clumps of what
appeared to be human hair.

A U.S. military spokesman said the incident in Qalaye Niazi, about
four km (2.5 miles) north of the provincial capital Gardez, was under
investigation.

Further north about 50 British troops drove into Kabul to take up
peacekeeping duties, the vanguard of an international security force
agreed with the Afghan interim government.

The reported devastation of Qalaye Niazi before dawn on Sunday was
believed to have involved one jet, one B-52 bomber and two
helicopters, villager Janat Gul told Reuters.

Residents said up to 107 people had been killed, many of them women
and children.

Asked about the report, Major Pete Mitchell, a spokesman for U.S.
Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said: "We are aware of the
incident and we are currently investigating."

Word of the killings came just three days after new Afghan Defence
Minister Mohammad Fahim appealed for an end to U.S. bombing raids,
which had already been blamed for hundreds, possibly thousands, of
civilian deaths.

General Fahim said there was no point in continuing the attacks as
bin Laden, presumed mastermind behind the September 11 suicide hijack
attacks on U.S. cities, had probably fled to neighbouring Pakistan
and his al Qaeda network of militant Islamic fighters had dispersed.

The attacks on New York and Washington killed more than 3,000
Americans and other nationals.

In Qalaye Niazi, an official of the local tribal Shura, or council,
said U.S. troops had been invited to view the destruction. The
Reuters cameraman saw American troops and Northern Alliance forces en
route to the village.

Paktia province borders Pakistan and is southwest of the jagged
canyons of Tora Bora, where many al Qaeda fighters made a last stand.
It was heavily bombed in early December when bin Laden was believed
to be hiding there.

"There are no al Qaeda or Taliban people here," said Gul, adding that
he had lost 24 family members in the raid.
 
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