Afghanistan - United States - 
Article published the Saturday 29 May 2010 - Latest update : Saturday 29 May 2010

US military admits killing 23 Afghan civilians

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General Stanley McChrystal
Reuters

By RFI

The US military has admitted killing 23 civilians and has reprimanded six operators of a pilot-less drone that attacked a convoy of civilians. An investigation found that warnings that the convoy was not an attacking force were ignored and that the ground-force commander was not sure who was in the vehicles.

Women and children were among the dead. A Nato statement after the attack in February said the convoy was thought to contain Taliban fighters.

The investigation said the order to attack was based on flawed information and flawed analysis.

The US troop commander, General Stanley McChrystal, said letters of reprimand have been sent to six officers.

McChrystal had introduced tougher regulations to prevent civilian deaths, but they have not been failsafe.

tags: Afghanistan - Nato - United States - War
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Comments (1)

tip of the iceberg

Once in a while, the US military admit the slaughter of civilians. It is the tip of the iceberg.

Most time, the civilians are called insurgents, just to avoid questioning. Of course, dead people do not tell... and the living do not ask.

The perfect receipt for genocide.

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