http://www.msnbc.com/news/627086.asp
Report: U.S. paid villagers over raid
Rumsfeld: U.S.
investigating;
he says he has
no knowledge
of payments
Three men walk away from a grave site near the town of Uruzgan, where
villagers claim that U.S. special forces wrongly killed at least 18
men.
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Feb. 4 -- Afghan officials say the United States has conceded that a
deadly raid in a southern Afghan village two weeks ago was a mistake
and that families of those killed had been given compensation -- in
$100 bills -- according to a report broadcast Monday.
U.S. FORCES have returned to investigate claims that they
killed the wrong people in the raid, and they should apologize on the
spot if the claims prove true, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
Monday.
U.S. soldiers have gone to the area in Uruzgan province where
special forces killed 15 or 16 people and arrested 27 in a nighttime
raid two weeks ago, Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
Rumsfeld admitted for the first time that it was possible that
a U.S. military assault on two compounds Jan. 24 resulted in their
"unfortunately killing or wounding some individuals who might have
been friendly."
According to a report broadcast Monday by NPR News, however,
senior Afghan officials said that the United States had already
expressed regret over the raid at Uruzgan and had even paid the
victims' families $1,000 each in U.S. cash.
Responding to a question, Rumsfeld said he had no information
about reports of such apologies or payments.
"I do know that U.S. soldiers have gone back into the area, I
believe with Afghans, to try to determine the facts," he said.
"I would hope that if, in the course of that, they discover
that somebody was in fact killed who should not have been killed ...
that American forces would express apologies. I can't say that I know
that, but I would hope they would."
PENTAGON ABOUT-FACE
After days of insisting they had struck the right people,
Pentagon officials said last week that they would investigate the
incident. The interim Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai said it
also was investigating.
Rumsfeld said he recalled Karzai's telling someone in the U.S.
military that "in the event that it turns out that people were in fact
killed who were friendly to the interim government, that would be
unfortunate, and it would be helpful if some way could be found to
compensate them."
The Pentagon has insisted that U.S. special forces attacked a
legitimate military target in the raid on an ammunition dump that
intelligence analysts believed al-Qaida or Taliban forces were using.
But some Afghans said Taliban renegades were handing over
weapons to Karzai's government at the site. They said that some
pro-Karzai figures were killed and that others, including a police
chief, his deputy and members of a district council, were among those
arrested.
COMMAND POST MOVING TO BAHRAIN
Meanwhile, the top Marine Corps general for Central Asia and
the Persian Gulf is moving his command post from Hawaii to Bahrain in
another sign that the U.S. anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan and
elsewhere won't be over any time soon.
Lt. Gen. Earl Hailston moved to Bahrain in mid-January on
Rumsfeld's orders, said his spokesman in Hawaii, Lt. Col. Pat Sivigny.
Hailston, who oversees the Marines' operations in both the
Central and Pacific commands, joins Central Command chiefs for the Air
Force and the Army, who moved to the region in recent months, and the
Navy's 5th Fleet, which already had a base there. The Navy component
of Central Command is headquartered in Bahrain, the Air Force's is in
Saudi Arabia and the Army's is in Kuwait.
Also, some Marines who had been deployed to the Afghan campaign
have moved to the coast of Africa for a three-week joint exercise with
Kenyan forces, Pentagon officials said Monday.
More than 2,000 Marines began the amphibious exercise Sunday.
Officials said it had been planned for months and was not a sign that
military action was planned soon in neighboring Somalia, where
officials fear al-Qaida terrorists from Afghanistan could seek refuge.
FACTIONAL FIGHTING
Also Monday, efforts to quell Afghanistan's worst factional
fighting since the fall of the Taliban had mixed results. Under
supervision of the United Nations, opposing forces in the north agreed
to work toward a demilitarization but, in the east, government
mediators reportedly failed to push two warring tribes into a peace
deal and ordered both sides to send delegations to Kabul for more
talks.
In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, two factions agreed to
set up a security commission to demilitarize under the supervision of
the United Nations. Several days of clashes there last week killed
more than 40 people.
Mohammad Sardar Saeedi, of the Hezb-i-Wahdat party, said Uzbek
warlord general Abdul Rashid Dostum and his rival ethnic Tajik
commander, Ustad Atta Mohammad, had decided to hand control of the
city to a security commission led by Hezb-i-Wahdat.
Both Dostum and Mohammad are part of the U.N.-brokered interim
government in Kabul.
The commission will deploy 200 fighters from each group as
police to maintain security and law and order in the aftermath of
three days of the fighting on the outskirts of the city between forces
under Dostum and Atta, Saeedi said. [dotblack.gif]
[37][lnk_story.gif] NBC: Karzai up against warlord rivalries
[dotblack.gif]
"There is no problem anymore. A cease-fire has been enforced,"
Saeedi said.
Mazar-e-Sharif was the scene of bitter factional fighting for
several years before the hard-line Taliban seized control in 1998 and
brought relative security.
The United States dislodged the Taliban under the weight of
heavy airstrikes and Northern Alliance ground forces following the
Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, which Washington blames
on [38]Osama bin Laden and his [39]al-Qaida network, which had been
sheltered by the Taliban for years.
Representatives of the Northern Alliance now comprise the bulk
of the interim administration.
As part of the deal struck on Sunday, all heavy machine guns,
tanks and armored personnel carriers will be withdrawn from
Mazar-e-Sharif under the supervision of a U.N observer who will be
involved in regular mediation, Saeedi said.
"The formation of the commission is welcomed by the people who
were really concerned about the recent fighting," he said.
NBC's Tom Aspell, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
to this report.
