A Battlefield Tourist

US Appoints General Officer Over Civilian Deaths

Sep 7 at 3:03pm by David Tate

The US military says a general officer is being assigned to review the US investigation into allegations a joint US Special Forces/Afghan commando raid killed as many as 90 civilians, most of them children, in an assault on a compound from which the coalition forces were fired from.

Citing “emerging evidence”, General David McKiernan says, “In light of the emerging evidence pertaining to civilian casualties in the August 22 couter-insurgency operation in the Shindand District, Herat Province, I feel it is prudent to request that US Central Command send a general officer to review the US investigation and its findings with respect to this new evidence.  The people of Afghanistan have our commitment to get to the truth.”

The US maintains the August 22 raid in Shindand district, Herat Province, killed no more than two civilians while resulting in the deaths of roughly 30 Taliban fighters.  The US military also claims weapons and evidence of an impending attack on a coalition base was imminent.

Both the Afghan government and UNAMA say their investigations reveal the civilian toll to be much higher than what the US claims.  The Afghans also claim to have photo and video evidence to back up their claims, but have yet to produce the evidence.

The Afghans say the raid was the result of a tip motivated by a clan rivalry and that many of the men killed were part of a private security company that provided security at the airbase in Shindand.

In the only independent view of the attack, FOX Newschannel had a team embedded with Special Forces when the fighting broke out.  Lt. Col. Oliver North (USMC-ret) says that he saw no evidence of civilian casualties.