Protest against US slaughter in Afghanistan

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Wednesday July 12, 2006 00:16 by M Cotton

Marc Herold from the University of New Hampshire exposes the hypocrisy of western reporting on the deaths of innocent Afghanis.

"Didi Feroza in her mid-50’s, a mother injured
Didi’s niece, 6, killed
Nida Mohammad’s brother, 30, killed
Nida Mohammad’s two nephews, aged 8 and 10, killed
A mother’s two children killed
Other men, women and children killed

Killed and injured between 1-4 A.M. Monday morning, July 10, 2006

by U.S. “precision” bombing and strafing by Apache attack helicopters of three villages – Dehjawz-e-Hasanzey, Sarosah, Kakrak – about 10 kms north of Tirin Kot, Uruzgan Province. Lying in a hospital bed in Kandahar, Didi Feroza in her mid-50’s, recounted the details of the U.S. aerial attack. She was awoken early Monday by a loud explosion, went to her roof and saw at least two helicopter gun ships firing. She told an A.P. reporter, “I ran outside with my 6-yr-old niece to get away and was hit by shrapnel…I turned around and saw my niece had been hit and she was dead.” Feroza saw Taliban militants in the town, but they were running from the scene of the attack. Haji Nida Mohammad, 45, who accompanied an injured relative to Kandahar, said the U.S. attack killed two of his nephews, 8 and 10, and a 30-yr-old brother. Mohammad elaborated, “I saw women, men and children killed and wounded. Ten to twelve homes were totally destroyed. It was a day from hell. We are innocent people who don’t help the Taliban, but they [the U.S.] destroyed our homes.” A doctor in a clinic in Tirin Kot said 13 children were admitted for treatment. A doctor in Kandahar reported 3 injured women being admitted. A 35-year old woman in the Kandahar hospital with a broken hand and burns to her face said two of her children had been killed. Declining to give her name, she added, “Taliban entered the village and the bombing started. Lots of innocent people were killed and wounded and our villages were completely destroyed…I have three children. One died in my arms, another died in the yard and one is missing.” Asked about Taliban casualties, she said, “several of them were martyred but thank God, lots of them fled alive.” A member of the Afghan parliament, Abdul Khaliq Mujahid, from Uruzgan said that at least 50 people were killed and wounded in the U.S. attacks upon the three villages.

The U.S. military’s propaganda mouthpiece in Kabul, Lt. Tamara Lawrence, said that U.S. aerial attacks had killed “more than 40 extremists” hidden in “a militant hideout” near Tirin Kot. Again, the translation is extremists = innocent civilians, and militant hideout = peoples’ homes. The corporate media dutifully picked up upon the lietenant's version.

Apache helicopter gunfire and four GBU-12 500 pound bombs dropped by a B1-B bomber

Marc W. Herold
University of New Hampshire"