A U.S. investigation released Tuesday disputed a U.N. report that found
"credible evidence" that up to 90 civilians died in a raid on a western Afghan
village, saying an after-battle assessment found most of the victims were
Taliban fighters.
The military probe found that up to seven civilians and between 30 and 35
Taliban militants were killed in an operation in Azizabad village in the early
morning hours of Aug. 22. The U.N. backed a finding by the Afghan government
that all the victims were civilians.
The competing claims illustrate the difficulty of determining how many
civilians fall victim in a war fought in distant mountains and densely
populated villages.
U.S. officials say they face significant challenges both in identifying Taliban
fighters, who mix easily with the general population, and because of incentives
to falsely claim civilian casualties.
"The enemy knowingly hides behind women and children, they dress in burqas,"
Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser told The Associated Press on Monday. "The enemy
makes it extraordinarily difficult to avoid civilian casualties. We don't even
know it (civilian casualties occurred) until the fighting is over."
In addition, the U.S. has long said that Taliban militants pressure Afghan
villagers to falsely claim civilian casualties, information warfare that does
serious damage to the reputations of the U.S., NATO and the Western-backed
Afghan government.
In Azizabad and other small villages where civilians are reported killed in
combat, the Afghan government and international militaries pay about $2,000 for
each person killed, giving villagers incentive to file false claims. U.S.
officials acknowledge that payments have been made for people who never existed.
A senior Afghan official close to the Azizabad case said Tuesday he was sure 90
civilians had not perished in the fighting, but he said the Afghan government
had already paid claims to villagers. He spoke on condition he was not
identified contradicting the official government report.
The official noted that President Hamid Karzai — whose government was quick to
publicize the civilian casualties report — is running for president next year,
and has reason to be seen standing up to international powers while taking the
side of Afghan villagers.
No conclusive evidence has surfaced in the Azizabad case to confirm the death
toll.
The U.N. and Afghan reports relied primarily on the word of villagers.
Nek Mohammad Ishaq, a provincial council member in Herat and a member of the
Afghan commission, has said photographs and video taken of the victims are with
Afghanistan's secretive intelligence service, but no such images have emerged.
The U.S. did not make public any video feeds from military aircraft or the
forces on the ground.
A member of Afghanistan's investigating commission, Mohammad Iqbal Safi, a
member of parliament, said the U.S. report would not change the finding of the
Afghans. He said many Afghan households have weapons, but that doesn't make
them militants.
"Again I want to emphasize that all the victims were civilians, and there were
no Taliban among the dead," Safi said. "All the men killed in the operation
were the employees of the private security company working at the coalition
base. So how could they be Taliban?"
Ahmad Nader Nadery, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights
Commission, has said that a villager named Reza, whose compound bore the brunt
of the attack, had a private security company that worked for the U.S. military
at nearby Shindand airport.
Villagers and officials have said the operation was based on faulty information
provided by a rival of Reza. Aziz Ahmad Nadem, a member of parliament from
Herat, has told the AP that the rival is now being protected by the U.S.
military.
Afghan officials say U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos raided the
village while hundreds of people were gathered in a large compound for a
memorial service honoring a tribal leader, Timor Shah, who was killed eight
months ago by the rival, Nader Tawakal. Reza, who was killed in the Aug. 22
operation, is Shah's brother.
The U.S. report released Tuesday said American and Afghan forces took fire from
militants while approaching Azizabad, incoming fire that "justified use of
well-aimed small-arms fire and close air support to defend the combined force."
The U.S. said its range in casualty numbers was determined by observation of
enemy movements during the engagement and on-site observations immediately
after the battle. It said a known Taliban commander, Mullah Siddiq, and five to
seven civilians were among the dead..
The report said that investigators discovered evidence that the militants
planned to attack a nearby coalition base. Evidence collected included weapons,
explosives, intelligence materials and an access badge to the base, as well as
photographs from inside and outside the base, the report said.
The report said that the investigating officer watched video of the engagement
and looked at topographic photo comparisons of the area before and after,
including burial sites.
The U.S. report left open the possibility that evidence could emerge to prove
that more people died in Azizabad. "No other evidence that may have been
collected by other organizations was provided to the U.S. Investigating Officer
and therefore could not be considered in the findings," the report said.
Still, U.S. and NATO forces have killed large numbers of civilians in
airstrikes.
In early July, a U.S. airstrike hit a group of Afghans walking to a wedding,
killing 47 civilians, an Afghan government commission found. The U.S. at first
denied hitting any civilians, then later said it regretted any loss of civilian
life. The U.S.. never publicly admitted its aircraft killed civilians.
The Taliban is no innocent party in the fight. Militants have killed more
civilians this year than any U.S. or NATO military action.
An Associated Press tally of death tolls from Western and Afghan officials
shows that Taliban attacks like suicide bombings have killed 540 civilians this
year. U.S. and NATO military action have killed around 160, excluding Azizabad.
Suicide bombs killed more than 100 civilians in Kandahar in February, and more
than 60 this summer in an attack on the Indian Embassy.
Karzai ratcheted up pressure on Western militaries after the fighting in
Azizabad by ordering a review of whether the U.S. and NATO should be allowed to
use airstrikes or carry out raids in villages. Karzai also called for an
updated "status of force" agreement between the Afghan government and foreign
militaries.
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