Karzai condemns US for killing school children
My Name
Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:28:04 GMT
Font size :
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20091229/shamseddin20091229113605750.jpg
Afghan President Hamid Karzai protests the US military's
targeting of civilians after a US raid killed at least eight
school children in the east of the war-torn country.
Karzai's office on Monday issued a statement in which it
condemned the killings that reportedly took place on
Saturday in Kunar province near the border with Pakistan.
"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by
international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians,
eight of them school students, have been killed," the
statement said.
"President Karzai strongly condemns the operation which
caused civilian deaths and has appointed a delegation to
investigate the incident," it added.
The angry statement comes as Afghan authorities fear a rise
in the civilian death toll as investigations are ongoing.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, also known
as ISAF, has reportedly said it had no information on any
operations or casualties in Kunar.
But a senior Western military official disclosed that US
special forces have been conducting operations in the border
regions of Kunar.
"They have been killing a lot of Taliban and capturing a lot
of Taliban" during operations conducted independently of
NATO and coalition forces, he told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
The indiscriminate targeting of civilians prompted Kunar
parliamentary representatives to storm out of an important
debate on appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in a show of
protests.
Shuja Al-Malik, one of the parliamentarians representing
Kunar, confirmed that "all the children were 12 to 18-year-
olds belonging to an elementary religious school," the BBC
Persian reported.
Haji Farid, a lawmaker from the Kapisa province, said "every
time an American soldier gets killed, they bomb an entire
village. The president should determine to whom this country
belongs. If [it belongs to] us, then the foreigners are
bound to go by our rules."
Ever-increasing civilian deaths in the 8 years of large
foreign military presence since the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001 have exhausted people in the war-weary
nation.
Earlier in December, Karzai condemned the killing of six
civilians during a NATO raid as Washington vowed US troop
reinforcements would keep civilian deaths to a minimum. The
US and NATO have pledged to send an additional 40,000 forces
in Afghanistan for the coming year.
MRS/DT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114872§ionid=351020403
--
A government, of Israel, by Israel, and, for: Israel.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. The light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not. The light of the body is the eye:
if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.