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Villagers look at the shattered body of a victim of air strikes in Ganj Abad of Bala Buluk district, in Farah province - Source: Reuters -
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A US military investigation has uncovered mistakes in air
strikes that killed dozens of civilians in western Afghanistan last
month, according to a US military official.
The official confirmed a report in The New York Times that said the
civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if US air
crews and ground troops had followed strict rules to prevent
civilian casualties.
"We do not have an issue with the accuracy of the story," said the
official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the results of
the investigation have not yet been announced.
The incident in early May stoked long-standing tensions between
Afghans and foreign troops over civilian casualties.
Afghan officials put the civilian death toll from the air strikes
in Farah province as high as 140 while an Afghan human rights
watchdog put the total at 97.
The rights group said no more than two Taliban fighters were
killed.
The US military, by contrast, has said 20-35 civilians were among
80-95 people killed, most of them Taliban fighters who used the
civilians as human shields.
The investigation was ordered by General David Petraeus, the head
of US Central Command, the military headquarters that oversees US
military operations across the Middle East and into Central and
South Asia.
The Times, citing an unnamed senior military official, said the
investigation had concluded that one US aircraft was cleared to
attack Taliban fighters, but circled back and did not reconfirm the
target before dropping bombs, leaving open the possibility that the
militants had fled or civilians had entered the target area in the
intervening few minutes.
A compound where militants were massing for a possible
counterattack against US and Afghan troops was struck in violation
of rules that required a more imminent threat to justify putting
high-density village dwellings at risk, it said.
"In several instances where there was a legitimate threat, the
choice of how to deal with that threat did not comply with the
standing rules of engagement," the Times quoted its source as
saying.
The New York Times story did not say how many civilian casualties
may have been avoided if the correct procedures had been
followed.
The Pentagon declined to comment, saying it had not yet received
the Central Command report.
