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Gen. David Petraeus apologizes for deaths of 9 Afghan children

02 March 2011 20:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. NATO swiftly accepts responsibility for the deaths of the children, who were killed in a U.S. bombardment as they gathered firewood in eastern Afghanistan, APA reports quoting â€œLos Angeles Timesâ€.
’These deaths should never have happened,’ Gen. Petraeus says.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander of Western forces in Afghanistan, apologized Wednesday for the accidental deaths of nine civilians, identified by Afghan officials as children killed as they gathered firewood in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan. A 10th child was injured in the U.S. bombardment, Afghan officials said.

The NATO force’s unusually swift acceptance of responsibility for Tuesday’s deaths in Kunar province followed a highly public burst of outrage by Afghan officials over the incident. Civilian deaths and injuries are a bitterly divisive issue between the Western military and the government of President Hamid Karzai, particularly when children are involved.

In a statement, Petraeus said NATO’s International Security Assistance Force was "deeply sorry for this tragedy." Expressing condolences to the families of those killed, the general said he would make a personal apology to Karzai upon the Afghan leader’s return from an official visit to London.

"These deaths should never have happened," Petraeus said.

Western military officials had said previously that the episode began when insurgents rocketed an American outpost in the Dara-i-Pech district, slightly injuring a local contractor, and that troops responded with what they described as aerial bombardment and "indirect fire," which usually means artillery strikes.

Petraeus’ apology suggested that the group of children spotted on the mountainside were mistaken for the insurgents who had mounted the attack on the base. "Regrettably, there appears to have been an error in the handoff between identifying the location of the insurgents and the attack helicopters that carried out subsequent operations," the statement said.

The apology came hours after Karzai issued a harshly worded denunciation of the attack, which he called "ruthless," adding that the deaths and injuries of noncombatants seriously undermined Western war aims.

Kunar province last month was the scene of another civilian-casualty episode that prompted an angry confrontation between the Karzai government and the NATO force. The Western military said it its initial findings were that three dozen armed insurgents had died in a series of airstrikes, but Afghan officials put the death toll at more than 60 and said most of them were civilians, including women and children.
That incident took on even more incendiary overtones when Afghan officials asserted that Petraeus, in a closed-door meeting, had suggested that some children hospitalized in the wake of the attack could have been injured by parents who scalded their hands or feet as a form of punishment. A Petraeus spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, vehemently denied Petraeus had implied the injuries were inflicted by the children’s relatives to bolster accusations against Western troops but acknowledged the general had made a reference to past reports on the practice of using scalding as a means of discipline.

The area where Tuesday’s deaths occurred also has been the center of controversy over recently announced plans to pull back U.S. forces from remote outposts in the Pech valley, which was previously described by American commanders as a crucial line of defense against insurgents infiltrating from across the border in Pakistan. Holding the valley had exacted a heavy toll in U.S. casualties , but officials defended the "repositioning," saying it would allow them to make better use of troops elsewhere.

The Kunar provincial police chief, Kahilullah Ziayee, said the nine child victims of Tuesday’s strike were between the ages of 8 and 14, killed as they scoured a steep hillside for wood for their families to burn for fuel. Most Afghan homes are wood-heated, particularly in the countryside, and the winters are bitterly cold in the rugged mountains and valleys of Kunar province.

Tensions over civilian casualties have aggravated already rocky relations between Karzai and his Western backers. The Afghan leader and the Obama administration have quarreled openly during the last 18 months over corruption, election fraud and other issues.

In his statement issued from London, Karzai denounced "unjustifiable operations and bombings" carried out by Western troops. Some parliamentarians demanded that Petraeus appear before lawmakers to account for military actions resulting in civilian deaths.

Independent organizations including the United Nations blame insurgents for the bulk of civilian deaths and injuries, hundreds of which are caused each year by Taliban suicide attacks and roadside bombings. However, deaths at the hands of foreign forces tend to arouse greater public fury, with Afghans arguing that the Western military should be held to a higher standard.

In addition, many Afghans believe that attacks that kill civilians are galvanized by the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops. The NATO force numbers about 150,000, two-thirds of whom are Americans.

Both Petraeus and his predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, ordered field commanders to take stringent measures to avoid civilian casualties. But Petraeus, who took command after McChrystal was fired last year over intemperate comments by him and aides that were reported in Rolling Stone magazine, has been seen as allowing somewhat greater leeway in the targeting of suspected insurgents.

The general promised a full investigation of Tuesday’s deaths and said crews of attack helicopters would be "rebriefed â€¦ reinforcing the need to be sure we protect the lives of innocent Afghans as we pursue a ruthless enemy." Petraeus left open the possibility of disciplinary action against those found responsible.

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Gen. David Petraeus apologizes for deaths of 9 Afghan children

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