AFGHANISTAN: Afghan victims of Taliban violence suffer in silence

AFP

By LYNNE O’DONNELL

November 22, 2009

KABUL — The stench of sewage hangs in the air as barefoot children clamber up a suburban hillside in Kabul, past green flags that flap over the graves of Afghans killed in suicide attacks.

Perhaps a third of the tombs, each surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, are marked as the final resting places of “martyrs,” as the victims of Taliban attacks are known.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, but three decades of war and an increasingly brutal Islamist insurgency have left it rich in martyrs and the misery their deaths leave behind.

In little more than three months, in Kabul alone, devastating suicide attacks have killed around 100 people. About 300 people have been injured.

AFGHANISTAN: Killing civilians triggers demonstration in S Afghan province

KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — A crowd of Afghans came to the streets of Helmand’s provincial capital Lashkargah in south Afghanistan Thursday and denounced what they described arbitrary killing of civilians.

“Around 100 people carrying some dead bodies in Lashkargah Thursday morning accused NATO-led forces of killing nine civilians and calling on the government to investigate and punish those responsible,” a protestor and demonstrator Hajji Hafizullah Khan told Xinhua.

AFGHANISTAN: Gen.: German troops OK in calling for airstrike

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

AP

October 29, 2009

BERLIN — A top German general said Thursday that a NATO investigation of an airstrike against a pair of hijacked Afghan tanker trucks showed the attack was appropriate even though it led to civilian casualties.

Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who is the general inspector of the German army, also said that the exact death toll could no longer be confirmed.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO probes death of four Afghan civilians

By AFP

October 25, 2009

KABUL — The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has launched an investigation into the deaths of four civilians it killed by firing on their vehicle in the southern city of Kandahar, the alliance force said.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said its troops opened fire Saturday “when the driver of a local vehicle failed to stop when approaching ISAF troops.”

“According to the initial report, ISAF troops tried repeatedly to signal the fast-approaching vehicle with passive measures, but fearing for their safety fired on the vehicle,” the ISAF statement said.

Afghan authorities had earlier said two women and a child were among the dead, while two or three other civilians were also wounded.

Afghanistan: Netherlands admits air strike that killed Afghan civilians

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Date: 02 Oct 2009

THE HAGUE, Oct 2, 2009 (AFP) – A Dutch warplane dropped the bomb which Afghan authorities said killed nine civilians and four Taliban fighters in the south of the country on Wednesday, the Dutch defence ministry said.