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Witness: Taliban dead may be civilians
 Nato's claims to have killed 11 Taliban who were preparing an ambush in Afghanistan have been disputed by local people who have said that the dead were civilian grape-pickers.
| "Yes! We are simple, but well-armed grape pickers!" |
The Nato-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan said its troops spotted 15 Taliban near a main road in Kandahar late on Tuesday. After realising they had been detected, the men then moved to a nearby compound which Nato aircraft then bombed, said Major Scott Lundy, a Nato spokesman. Lundy said: "11 Taliban were killed in the air strike, while two insurgents were later seen leaving the compound."
| "Culy-toed slippers, don't fail us now!" |
But civilians in the Zhari area to the west of Kandahar city, said the dead were farmers who had been working in their grape fields in the cool of the evening. "Those people who died in the bombing were civilians," Ahmad Shapour, a resident of the area, said by telephone.
The killing of Afghan civilians by Nato troops threatens to weaken popular support for the US-backed government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, in his war against the Taliban.
| That's what it's supposed to do, isn't it? |
Posted by: Fred 2006-08-24 |
