Brutal US Attack on Unarmed Afghans Captured by Photos
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Brutal US Attack on Unarmed Afghans Captured by Photos
By Tom Coghlan
The Independent UK
Tuesday 08 August 2006
Claims that US troops shot dead up to six unarmed Afghan civilians
two months ago in Kabul have been given added credibility with a series
of photographs offering visual evidence of military misconduct.
The pictures were taken by an Afghan passer-by on 29 May in Khair
Kane, a district of north Kabul. The 20 photographs appear to show a
group of unarmed Afghan civilians being killed by gunfire from an
American Humvee.
The allegations made in Kabul follow other recent incidents in
which US troops are alleged to have used disproportionate or reckless
force against civilians, most notably in Haditha, Iraq, on 19 November
2005 when US troops allegedly killed 15 civilians.
The Kabul pictures were taken as American vehicles fled the scene
of an accident in which several Afghans were killed and injured after a
US Army truck lost control and hit a number of civilian vehicles. Shot
from a hillside above where the original accident took place, they show
a crowd of Afghans throwing stones at the American vehicles.
A sequence of pictures show US vehicles leaving at high speed as
the crowd stones them. In one sequence, a clearly unarmed Afghan man is
seen with an American Humvee in the background, then as part of a group
of men throwing stones towards the Americans. Two frames later his
lifeless body is on the ground, having apparently been shot in the
chest.
Another picture shows the body of an 18-year-old mechanic named
Maiwan. His family said he was also hit by bullets fired from a US
Humvee towards the crowd. His brother Jawad, 19, said Maiwan died from
wounds to his knee and chest. "We are not the sort of people to do
anything against US forces," said Jawad. "Maiwan was quiet and
friendly. My father loved him too much, more than the rest of us."
The photographer, Atif Ahmadzai, 34, said: "I thought at first they
were firing into the air. I was on the hill taking the pictures and, as
they fired towards me, I ducked. One bullet grazed my thigh. Two people
were killed behind me." He said he saw six bodies in total.
The day after the rioting he took the pictures to the US embassy.
"I told them,'Just look at the people in the pictures, they are all
unarmed'," he said. A statement released by the US military said a US
Army truck had suffered a brake failure, causing it to lose control and
hit up to 13 Afghan civilian vehicles, killing one person. The
statement said: "There are indications that at least one coalition
military vehicle fired warning shots over the crowd." US forces have
launched an investigation into the incident, the results of which are
due to be published next week.
All the witnesses to the incident reported at least one US vehicle
opened fire on the civilians. "I saw with my own eyes that the soldier
fired on the people," said Nazir Akhmad, 32, who owns a petrol station
near where the accident occurred. "Her gun was pointed in the air but
then she brought it down and started firing. The first bullet killed a
boy called Khaled."
The US military declined to comment yesterday on its investigation.
The US spokesman, Col Tom Collins, said: "I can't comment on the
results of the investigation but there is no doubt that our soldiers
thought there was fire emanating from the crowd."