When this news item first came up, it did not draw my attention. It was when the photos were published on Yahoo News that it gained my interest. They were published on January 13, 2007. The incident happened on December 12, 2006. I have links and captions for the photos at the end of this post.
Here’s what we know for sure:
- U.S. forces and an Afghani interpreter attacked a home in Darnami in the southeastern province of Khost on December 12, 2006, early in the morning.
- Four (or five) people were killed, including a 13 year old girl.
- Several more were injured, and a home was damaged.
- Neighbors, the remaining family, and the province’s governor claimed the people killed were civilians.
- The U.S. military spokesman said they were "suspected terrorists facilitators".
First, what is in dispute is who the people in the home actually were.
Locals claim they were civilians, one of them a policeman. The AP Photos (below) say that one of the deceased was an official at the Agricultural Ministry. And in a blog post, one of them was identified as the head of the Forestry Department in Khost. (Khost is a town about ten miles away from this village.) I wonder if the AP mixed up "Agricultural Ministry" with "Forestry Department" – or possibly, we are talking about two different men here. This report says that one of the injured (a relative of the people killed) was a bank manager. Another of the deceased was an Afghan intelligence official working in Khost.
That last claim was supported by this blog’s interpretation of Pajhwok Afghan News.
According to Abdul Majid Arif and Javid Hamim of Pajhwok Afghan News, U.S Special Forces raided the home of Sarfaraz, an Afghan intelligence official serving in Khost.
I would have to say that the local’s part of this story is probably correct. They should have some idea what professions their neighbors are following, and the ability to confirm employment. So, it is not likely that these people were Taliban, or suspected terrorist facilitators, as the US military spokesperson claimed. In fact, they were working with the current Afghanistan government as far as I can tell.
What is also in dispute is exactly what happened. US forces claimed they were fired on from inside the home. Or just fired upon - after they asked the "military-age males" to surrender peacefully. One report says that the residents realized they were surrounded; they went outside with their rifles. The neighbors claim the homes were attacked by the Taliban before.
There are reports that people inside did not fire.
Engineer Shafiq Mandozai, manager of a private bank in Khost and a member of the Sarfaraz family, said US troops broke into the home and an Afghan interpreter shouted in a Kandahari dialect for everyone to get out. US forces then inexplicably started shooting (apparently there were no shots fired by people inside the home), killing 5 people.
Another report says the people were shot after coming out of the home. That same report says that Shafiq was beaten up by the US forces, and the photos do support the claim that he was beaten.
..in a conversation with Pajhwok Afghan News, "the U.S forces tied (me) up and thrashed me. As they were about to kill me, I presented them with my bank card and other documents, seeing which they released me."
And an AP photo caption below says this:
...he was sure the attackers were Taliban or al-Qaida, out to punish his family for its close ties with the Afghan government. Huddled with nine close relatives in their mud-brick compound in eastern Khost province, they heard a man with an accent from the southern city of Kandahar the Taliban's former stronghold order them to come out into the icy winter night. 'Come out and be safe,' the man said.
So, we really don’t know the sequence of events in that home that night.
With both sides expecting violent resistance, at least one side found that – but not from the Taliban, as the residents thought, but from the US forces that are supporting the very government they are working for. The fact that the Afghan interpreter has an identifiable accent may have added to their impression that it was Taliban coming after them. And, for all we know, possibly the Taliban has infiltrated the US forces and had a hand in designing this raid. Maybe the interpreter was a double agent.
But it does look like the US forces went after the wrong people, and ended up killing innocents.
We also know that a prior incident in Afghanistan last October (that resulted in civilian deaths) were blamed on poor communications and poor procedures.
About 60 civilians, many of them women and children, were killed by NATO planes during fighting in the southern province of Kandahar during Eid al-Fitr, a major Muslim holiday, last year, according to local leaders.
According to NATO spokesperson:
"This tragic event took place primarily because communications between international forces and local authorities did not work well enough," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said of the conclusions of an internal inquiry. "While ISAF made every effort to minimize the risk of unintended casualties, ISAF proved to have had inadequate measures for coordination with local authorities who might have known ... that nomads had moved into the surrounding hills."
ISAF stands for "Internal Security Assistance Force". They promised to do better, but no disciplinary consequences were instituted because
the "procedures themselves were to blame".
(And that brings to mind the song "and no one, no one, is to blame.")
Locals disputed the raid and the deaths and staged a protest. More than 3,000 showed up for one protest. They chanted:
"We will defend our rights to the last drop of our blood"
They claimed that the persons killed were innocent civilians. And this was not the only protest in Afghanistan about the killing of civilians. They are becoming more and more common. Recently Karzai spoke, and cried, about the killing of civilians by NATO forces. He put the blame on the Taliban.
Here are the photos.
Photo One
Maroofa, stands in the doorway where her father and sister were killed during a raid of the U.S military on their home in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province, Dec. 12, 2006. Her mother holds a child in the background. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso). Photos were published on 1/13/07 on Yahoo News. They were taken 12/12/06, the day after the incident.
Photo Two
Afisullah, shows bullet holes in a window after a raid of the U.S military in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province Dec. 12, 2006. fisulla's brother Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry was killed in the raid. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso)
Photo Three
Afisullah, shows blood stained clothing after a raid by the U.S military on his brother's home in Afghanistan's Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province in this photo of Dec. 12, 2006. Afisulla's brother Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry was killed in the raid. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Four
A relative of Mohammad Jan, shows the wound on the face of Maroofa, following a raid by the U.S. military on their home in Afghanistan's Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province, Dec. 12, 2006. Maroofa lost her father, Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, and 13-year-old sister, Khadijah in the raid. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Five
Mohammad Shafik, who lost relatives during a raid of the U.S military, speaks about the raid during an interview with The Associated Press in Afghanistan's Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province Dec. 12, 2006. Shafik's father, Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, and 13-year-old sister, Khadijah were killed in the raid. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Six
An Afghan boy stands near the kitchen side of a home which was raided by the U.S military forces in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province in this photo of Dec. 12, 2006. When blasts of gunfire woke Mohammad Shafik at 1 a.m., he was sure the attackers were Taliban or al-Qaida, out to punish his family for its close ties with the Afghan government. Huddled with nine close relatives in their mud-brick compound in eastern Khost province, they heard a man with an accent from the southern city of Kandahar the Taliban's former stronghold order them to come out into the icy winter night. 'Come out and be safe,' the man said. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Seven
Zartellah, 45, the wife of Mohammad Jan, who was killed by the U.S military during a raid on their home, speaks with The Associated Press in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province, Dec. 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Eight
Mohammad Shafik, points to a door damaged in a U.S. military raid at his home in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province, Dec. 12, 2006. Shafik's father, Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, and 13-year-old sister, Khadijah were killed in the raid. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso)
Photo Nine
Mohammad Shafik, who claimed he was punched in the face during a raid by the U.S military of his home speaks with The Associated Press in Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province, Dec. 12, 2006. Shafik's father, Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, and 13-year-old sister, Khadijah were killed in the raid. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
Photo Ten
An Afghan boy stands near a door, which was damaged during a raid of the U.S military on a home in Afghanistan's Darnami village of Mando Zayi district of Khost province Dec. 12, 2006. Five civilians were killed in the raid. The U.S. military described the Darnami raid as a joint coalition-Afghan operation, part of an effort to build the capabilities of the country's fledgling police and army. Family members say the soldiers were overwhelmingly American. (AP Photo/Amir Shah)
And here is another report about another incident that happened in 2006. I am not familiar with this incident and I have not researched it. But it looks like this professor did. It is another damning report on the killing of civilians, and missing the Taliban entirely. This was a bombing raid.
This insanity has got to stop.