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| Afghanistan |
| NATO Investigates 3 Afghan Civilian Deaths |
| 2010-05-01 |
| KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO said it was investigating allegations that a military convoy had gunned down two Afghan women and a girl in southeastern Afghanistan on Friday, and the French military took responsibility for killing four Afghan children during a missile strike in early April. The latest allegations of civilian deaths were in some dispute. On Friday, Afghan officials said international forces killed two Afghan women and a girl riding in a car in Zabul Province as they approached a military convoy stopped on the road to remove a buried bomb. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Kabul, Zemary Bashary, said “foreign forces' had killed the women in Zabul. Mohammed Jan Rasool Yar, a spokesman for the Zabul governor, said the Afghan authorities had not determined which military unit shot the women. He said the driver of the car, a man, was wounded and hospitalized. As troops defused the bomb, Mr. Yar said, a Toyota approached. They “tried to stop them, but they did not stop,' he said, and troops opened fire. Bad move on the Toyota driver. But while a NATO spokesman in Kabul said early Saturday morning that one military convoy had fired warning shots at a civilian car, he said that the driver stopped and there were no casualties. The spokesman said that NATO forces were continuing to investigate the allegations of civilian casualties in Zabul, but that they had no confirmation of any involvement by NATO troops. Also on Friday, the French military said its own investigation found that its forces killed four children during a fight with insurgents on April 6 in Kapisa Province, north of Kabul. According to Rear Adm. Christophe Prazuck, a French military spokesman, French and Afghan forces were setting up a combat outpost when insurgents attacked in the Bedrau Valley. Forces at a checkpoint returned fire and drove them back, he said. As the militants regrouped, French observers spotted seven insurgents hidden behind a wall, and troops fired one antitank missile. Thirty minutes later, a civilian vehicle arrived at the checkpoint with four children, ages 10 to 15, said to have been wounded in the attack, and another child who had already died. Three of the wounded children died shortly thereafter. “The children were near the insurgents and beneath a tree,' Admiral Prazuck said. “No civilian activity had been observed.' A French military investigation concluded in recent days. No further investigation or punitive measures are planned, Admiral Prazuck said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 “The children were near the insurgents and beneath a tree,” Admiral Prazuck said. “No civilian activity had been observed.” chlorine in the gene pool. Kids, don't hang around Talibs |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-05-01 08:56 |