In These New Times

Amir Shah AP

Independent

25th August, 2008

See also:

Five Weddings and Many Funerals

Two Afghan army officers have been sacked after a joint Afghan-coalition operation in the west of the country that President Hamid Karzai said killed at least 89 civilians.

The officers were dismissed for their involvement in an “irresponsible” military operation on Friday in western Afghanistan that Afghan officials said killed scores of civilians gathered for the memorial ceremony of a militia commander. Mr Karzai ordered the defence ministry to investigate General Jalandar Shah, the corps commander for the Afghan National Army in Herat, and Major Abdul Jabar, the leader of a commando unit involved in the Friday raid in Azizabad village of Herat’s Shindand district.

An Afghan human rights group which visited the site of the operation said on Saturday that at least 78 people were killed in clashes and an airstrike. The ministry of interior has said 76 civilians died, including 50 children, though the ministry of defence said 25 militants and five civilians were killed. Mr Karzai said on Sunday that at least 89 civilians were killed.

Originally, the US coalition said the battle killed 30 militants, including a wanted Taliban commander, but US coalition spokeswoman Rumi Nielson-Green said on Saturday that five civilians – two women and three children connected to the militants – were among the dead. The US is to investigate the incident. The operation on Friday was led by Afghan National Army commandos, supported by the coalition, Ms Nielson-Green said.

It was launched after an intelligence report that a Taliban commander, Mullah Siddiq, was inside the compound presiding over a meeting of militants. Siddiq was one of those killed during the raid. Violence has spiked around Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the Taliban has stepped up attacks against international troops.

In the north, coalition troops returned fire when attacked by militants while on patrol in the volatile Tagab valley of Kapisa province, said coalition spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Perry.

Rahimullah Safi, the province’s deputy governor, said six militants were killed in the clash. Tagab is close to the spot where militants killed 10 French troops on Tuesday in the deadliest attack on foreign troops since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

In southern Helmand province yesterday, four militants were killed by Nato aircraft and Afghan troops.