June 18, 2007

U.S. Attack On Mosque Kills Afghan Children

UPDATED.

U.S. forces said today that they had inadvertently killed seven children in an airstrike against a mosque and religious school in eastern Afghanistan that were being used as an al-Qaida safehouse. Several insurgents were also killed in the attack, which took place Sunday.

A coalition spokesman blamed al-Qaida for the casualties, claiming they were using the children as shields. "We are saddened by the innocent lives that were lost as a result of militants' cowardice," said Major Chris Belcher. Belcher said surveillance leading up to the attack had not revealed the children's presence at the mosque.

It was a bloody weekend in Afghanistan. Earlier Sunday in Kabul, a suicide bombing on a bus carrying police officers to a training compound killed 35 people and wounded 52. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest of its kind since the war began in 2001.

Peter Graff, blogging for Reuters, wrote a firsthand account of the bombing from Kabul. "The attack played out the greatest fear of Afghans, that the tactics that have caused such mayhem in Iraq would be imported here," he wrote.

The weekend violence coincided with reports blaming both sides for the increasing number of civilian casualties in the conflict. Human Rights Watch said 669 noncombatants were killed in insurgent attacks last year, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission accused U.S. Marines of committing war crimes in the killing of a dozen civilians in eastern Afghanistan last month.

Posted at 10:33 AM
Posted to: Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, Terrorism
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