Another US attack kills Afghan civilians

The rest of the article is athttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6418459.stm
Afghans killed 'in new US attack'. This shows the indifference to collateral damage. The standard line is to claim that attackers "cowardly" seek refuge in populated areas. How would the US public react if in the US authorities simply bombed a house to smithereens if a killer was seen fleeing into it? Five women and three children were allegedly killed in this instance. That leaves at most one of the attackers killed.


Nine Afghan civilians have been killed in a bombing raid in Kapisa province, Afghan officials say.
US forces have confirmed carrying out an air strike in the area but say they have no accurate casualty information.

The news comes shortly after US forces were accused of killing 10 civilians during a shoot out on Sunday in Nangarhar province.

Journalists say US troops confiscated their photos and video footage of the aftermath of the violence.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says the international mission to Afghanistan is to help the government and the people. But heavy fighting and suicide attacks have led to the death of thousands of innocent people over the past year.

President Karzai has been critical of the international forces in the past, saying they should do more to prevent civilian casualties.


Nato denial

News of the air strike in Kapisa came first from the province's deputy governor, Sayed Daud Hashimi.






He said the nine dead civilians included five women and three children and that the raid was carried out by Nato forces. Nato have denied any involvement.

But later a US military statement said US-led forces had "dropped two 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs" during an air strike in Kapisa after a Nato base had come under attack.

A US spokesman, Lt Col David Accetta, said the Nato base had come under rocket attack and that "two men with AK-47s" were seen leaving the scene of the rocket attack and entering a compound," the Associated Press news agency reports.

"These men knowingly endangered civilians by retreating into a populated area while conducting attacks against coalition forces."

Local people say that the coalition forces then bombed a mud-brick home, killing nine members of the same extended family.



The news came shortly after President Hamid Karzai had condemned an incident on Sunday in which US forces were accused of firing indiscriminately at civilians in the eastern province of Nangarhar.