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U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State (IS) hideout in Afghanistan killed at least 30 civilians resting after a day’s labor in the fields, officials said on Thursday.Uh huh. Their weapons were a few feet away so they were "Civilians", huh, Herb? The attack on Wednesday night also injured 40 people after accidentally targeting farmers and laborers who had just finished collecting pine nuts at mountainous Wazir Tangi in eastern Nangarhar province, three Afghan officials told Reuters.
 "The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them," tribal elder Malik Rahat Gul told Reuters by telephone from Wazir Tangi. Any gathering of men is automatically assumed as a terrorist camp and is eligible for targeting. It's how they keep bombing wedding parties. Haidar Khan, who owns the pine nut fields, said about 150 workers were there for harvesting, with some still missing as well as the confirmed dead and injured. A survivor of the drone strike said about 200 laborers were sleeping in five tents pitched near the farm when the attack happened. "Such mistakes cannot be justified. American forces must realize (they) will never win the war by killing innocent civilians," said Javed Mansur, a resident of Jalalabad city. An ignorant, uneducated man, but he speaks the truth. Scores of local men joined a protest against the attack on Thursday morning as they helped carry the victims’ bodies to Jalalabad city and then to the burial site. We just created hundreds of new recruits for the jihadis.
“15 Killed, Six Wounded” in US Airstrike In Nangarhar [ToloNews] Officials from the provincial police claimed on Thursday that "15 people were killed and six maimed" by a "dronezap" in the Khoghyani district of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province in early morning. Members of the Provincial Council said the number was 35 killed. The strike took place in the Wazir Tangi area of the district, police officials said, "while farmers were harvesting peanuts." A front man for USFOR-A (US forces in Afghanistan) Colonel Sonny Leggett, stated that US forces conducted a precision strike against ISIS  ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...holy warriors in Nangarhar early Thursday morning. "We are fighting in a complex environment against those who intentionally kill and hide behind civilians, as well as use dishonest claims of non-combatant casualties as propaganda weapons," Leggett said. "We are aware of allegations of the death of non-combatants and are working with local officials to determine the facts to ensure this is not a ploy to deflect attention from the civilians murdered by the Taliban ...Arabic for students... at a hospital in Zabul earlier today," he added. This comes while at least 20 people have been killed and over 100 maimed in a Taliban vehicle bomb close to a government hospital and National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) office in Qalat, capital of Zabul province on Thursday, local officials confirmed. The Taliban claimed they were targeting the NDS, but local officials said that the government hospital has been destroyed and no NDS employees were hurt. Related: Nangarhar: 2019-09-19 Prominent Taliban leader Qari Abdullah dies of wounds from an airstrike Nangarhar: 2019-09-19 'Historic day': PM Imran inaugurates 24/7 border crossing at Torkham Nangarhar: 2019-09-19 Suicide bomber, gunmen attack Afghan government building Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-09-20 |
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