Mission & Justice

13/9/08

Three men have been arrested after allegedly providing “wrong information” which led to the deaths of scores of civilians in a US air raid in western Afghanistan. More than 90 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the village of Azizabad in western Herat’s Shindand district on August 22, according to the Afghan government. Police began an investigation into the incident on September 4 after villagers said US-led forces in Afghanistan had been fed false information about the presence of Taliban members in Azizabad following a tribal dispute, interior ministry officials said.

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12/9/08

A suspected US drone aircraft has left at least eight people dead in northern Pakistan, while dozens of suspected fighters have been killed in the Bajaur region, Pakistani officials say. The drone aircraft on Friday fired on a house near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, leaving another 10 people injured. North Waziristan, seen by the US as a safehaven for supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, is part of a belt of tribally governed territory where Pakistan’s government has little control.

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12/9/08

US president George Bush secretly approved orders in July that, for the first time, allow Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani Government, according to senior American officials. The orders mark a watershed for the Bush Administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. They also follow months of stalemate about how to confront the militants’ increasingly secure base in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

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9/10/08

The depth of outrage felt by Afghans at the indiscriminate bombing inflicted on occasion by the American forces in Afghanistan was made shockingly clear this week when relatives of 90 slaughtered civilians offered to open the graves of their dead loved ones in order to prove that civilians had been killed in an air raid. The US military ordered the attack on August 22, and to this day the US military claims that 30 to 35 militants were killed in the raid, and only five to seven civilians died. This claim has been vigorously denied by the villagers, who filmed evidence showing over 60 women and children lying dead in the village mosque awaiting burial, and making clear that over 90 villagers died in total.

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Linda Heard; 9/9/08

Britain wouldn’t put up with, say, France sending bombers across the Channel to dump their payload on Dover in hopes of killing a criminal. The US wouldn’t condone the Mexican military marching into California to obliterate drug smugglers. And no nation worth its constitution or with even an iota of dignity would allow foreigners to cross its borders and incinerate innocent village folk in the name of combating terrorism. This is why I felt like cheering when I heard that the government of Pakistan has finally asserted its independence and made a firm stand. Last week, US Special Forces invaded Pakistani airspace to launch an attack on a farm village that left 20 dead, including women, children and the elderly. Surviving villagers swear the assault occurred while everyone slept and insist none of the dead had any links with either the Taleban or Al-Qaeda. As far as the mourners are concerned, this was a wanton act of murder that has forever changed their lives.

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9/9/08

The most senior US commander in Afghanistan has asked for another inquiry into US air raids that Afghan and UN teams say killed 90 civilians. General David McKiernan, who heads the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), said in a statement late on Sunday there was “emerging evidence” about the incident in Herat province. “I feel it is prudent to request that US Central Command send a general officer to review the US investigation and its findings with respect to the new evidence,” he said. His statement was issued from the main US base at Bagram, north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

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Julian Barnes; 6/9/08

With angry protests spreading in Pakistan, US defence officials have said that the number of cross-border commando missions might grow in coming months to counter increasing violence in Afghanistan. The developments threatened to aggravate US-Pakistani tensions just before today’s presidential election, in which attitudes towards the US might be a key issue. The raid and its aftermath also fanned a long-standing debate within the Bush Administration over how to deal with militants in Pakistan. Pakistani officials said US troops were ferried into South Waziristan by helicopter in Wednesday’s raid and that as many as 20 people were killed, many thought to be civilians. The White House, State Department and Pentagon all moved to clamp down on Administration discussion of the assault, but government officials confirmed the broad details disclosed by the Pakistani Government.

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Mark Dodd; 4/9/08

An Australian special forces soldier is fighting for his life after a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan in which eight others were wounded - the highest number of injuries suffered by Diggers in a single battle since the Vietnam War. An unknown number of Taliban fighters was also killed in the clash in Oruzgan province. Defence spokesman Brian Dawson yesterday said the attack on Tuesday night left one member of the Special Operations Task Group with critical injuries, five of his comrades seriously wounded and another three with slight wounds.

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Mark Dodd; 3/9/08

The Government and Opposition yesterday combined to defend the actions of special forces soldiers in Afghanistan after embarrassing admissions by the army that dog pens were used to hold Taliban detainees. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said yesterday the Diggers were not to blame for the situation that has infuriated Australian Muslim groups, who regard it as an insult to their religion, which classifies dogs as dirty animals. Speaking on ABC radio, Mr Fitzgibbon said the troops had no option but to use the dog pens before relocating their prisoners to the main base at Tarin Kowt. He accepted that cultural sensitivities had been offended but there would be no apology.

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Mark Dodd; 2/9/08

Suspected Taliban militants arrested by Australian special forces in Afghanistan have been detained in “dog pens” in actions that have left Australian Muslim groups outraged and prompted a protest from the Afghan ambassador in Canberra. The empty dog pens were used to hold overnight four suspected Taliban insurgents who were arrested in a raid by special forces soldiers on April 29. The raid - in response to the fatal shooting two days earlier of Sydney-based commando Lance Corporal Jason Marks - resulted in allegations of mistreatment of Afghan prisoners. An army inquiry last week rejected those claims, saying they were not supported by medical evidence.

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