Security

U.S., Karzai Fume After Deadly Rocket Attack

As if the accounts of U.S.-caused civilian casualties disclosed by WikiLeaks weren’t ugly enough. The Afghan government just blasted the U.S. for an errant attack in Helmand Province that it says killed 52 civilians. Only the U.S. military command says President Hamid Karzai is jumping the gun. Here’s what we know so far: on July […]


As if the accounts of U.S.-caused civilian casualties disclosed by WikiLeaks weren't ugly enough. The Afghan government just blasted the U.S. for an errant attack in Helmand Province that it says killed 52 civilians. Only the U.S. military command says President Hamid Karzai is jumping the gun.

Here's what we know so far: on July 23, NATO and Afghan troops came under fire from insurgents near the village of Rigi in Helmand. According to the Afghan government, an errant NATO rocket hit a house where women and children had gathered to avoid being caught in the crossfire, killing 52. The New York Times quotes Karzai calling the incident "both morally and humanly unacceptable," and a local witness saying, "They have ruined us, and they have killed small children and innocent women."

By contrast, NATO's International Security Assistance Force says that while its troops used "attack helicopters and precision-guided missiles" in the Rigi operation, a joint ISAF-Afghan investigation hasn't yielded any evidence of dead civilians thus far. An ISAF statement for the press flatly states: "All fires were observed and accounted for and struck the intended target." Rear Admiral Greg Smith, General Petraeus' strategic communications chief, added in the statement, "Any speculation at this point of an alleged civilian casualty in Rigi Village is completely unfounded."

Privately, top ISAF officials, including General Petraeus, are upset with the Afghan government for the instant condemnation. First impressions during these incidents can be misleading. Public rifts between Petraeus' command and Karzai's government are all too easy for the Taliban to exploit.

If it turns out that ISAF troops did accidentally kill civilians, it'll be commensurate with a lot of stomach-churning information released by WikiLeaks. Adding to well-documented accounts of civilian deaths like the 2009 airstrike in Kunduz that killed over 140 people, WikiLeaks documents less familiar, smaller-bore accidents like this 2007 shooting of a civilian vehicle carrying contract interpreters in Kabul. In another incident in the western province in Farah in 2008, a Spanish convoy shot and killed an Afghan riding in the front passenger seat of a car that may have veered close to the convoy.

Even under General Stanley McChrystal, who severely restricted NATO troops' use of force, the civilian casualties continued. On August 7th of last year, coalition troops spotted a suspected insurgent hanging around Fire Base Anaconda, in Uruzgan Province. The troops fired off three 120mm mortar rounds, but one fell short. Two girls were reported "killed by the mortar round."

Three days later, at 2:45 in the afternoon, a coalition patrol in Farah province noticed what they believed to be a pair of bomb-planters. They chased after them, and once the suspected insurgents stopped, the troops called for a polar "fire for effect" mission; it's a less-than-perfectly-precise way of targeting enemies with indirect fire. "The ground commander gave clearance for fires and Warhammer engaged with six rounds of 60mm [mortars]. The rounds impact approx 300m west of the intended target," the report from WikiLeaks' database reads. But the insurgents kept running, heading into a nearby village. The troops followed, and found "one local national casualty. "The casualty was bleeding from the legs due to shrapnel, had obvious head trauma, and was unconscious. The casualty (7-10 year old male) was approximately 50 meters from the point of impact with 2-3 other children in the immediate area." The boy was medically evacuated by the troops. By 6:45 the next morning, his father was ready to "return to his village with the remains of his son."

We'll have to wait for the results of the investigation to learn what really happened in Rigi. But we reported a few weeks ago on a study that correlated civilian casualties in Afghanistan with incidents of radicalization. It didn't tell us if there's any correlation between *reports *of civilian casualties and the creation of new enemies.

Credit: ISAF

See Also: