World-News

A US air strike in southern Afghanistan has killed up to 25 civilians, a local police chief said today. The victims included women, children and a cleric, as well as 20 suspected Taliban militants, according to Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the Helmand province police chief.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207C.shtml

Seven children killed after U.S. bombs school in Afghanistan

Massive battles were reported to have killed more than 100 people in southern Afghanistan in the past three days, as officials revealed that seven children had died.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2676970.ece



How to lose Afghanistan

Air strikes against a counter-insurgency should be a last resort. But the US is undertaking them - and creating more enemies.

http://tinyurl.com/2y2umh


From Information Clearing House

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Anger mounts over civilian deaths

CNN

06/20/07

A group of Western and Afghan aid organizations in Afghanistan has launched a blistering attack on foreign troops for not doing more to prevent civilian deaths in their hunt for Taliban fighters and other insurgents. The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), which represents nearly 100 aid groups, also hit out at the Taliban for endangering civilians by hiding amongst them and for a spate of suicide attacks that have killed or injured dozens this year...

http://tinyurl.com/23et8z


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to remain for decades to help rebuild the country, British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6220856.stm


From Information Clearing House

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

06/19/07

Goodwill toward foreign forces is eroding across Afghanistan because airstrikes and botched raids by U.S. and NATO troops have killed at least 230 civilians this year, an umbrella group for aid agencies said Tuesday. The complaint followed reports of dozens of civilian deaths in recent days during fierce fighting sparked by a Taliban offensive in Uruzgan, a key southern province. Insurgents also pushed Afghan police out of a remote district in neighboring Kandahar province...

http://tinyurl.com/ypg29l


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths

BRITAIN joined the US in ousting the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke the sh-t" out of Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington has reportedly said on a TV documentary.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21923990-1702,00.html



Nuke the Afghans

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-diplomat: 'Blair backed Bush to stop 9/11 kneejerk reaction'.

http://tinyurl.com/2mzz2c


From Information Clearing House

NATO has an image problem in Afghanistan - and a U.S. soldier who fired a Humvee's machine gun into a crowd of civilians after a deadly suicide bombing Saturday shows why.

http://tinyurl.com/3crs57


From Information Clearing House

Die NATO und die Bundeswehr müssen sich nach Ansicht des NATO-Generals Egon Ramms verstärkt auf Kampfhandlungen in Afghanistan einstellen. "Es muss allen politischen und militärischen Entscheidungsträgern eindeutig klar sein, dass die ISAF-Mission in Afghanistan - und damit meine ich das ganze Land - gefährlich ist", sagte Ramms, der als Befehlshaber des Allied Joint Force Command im niederländischen Brunssum den Einsatz der internationalen Afghanistan Schutztruppe ISAF leitet, der Düsseldorfer "Rheinischen Post". Kampfhandlungen könnten überall erforderlich werden.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=16144



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=ISAF

The situation in Afghanistan last fall was steadily deteriorating, with deep fractures developing in the south and west and the position of President Hamid Karzai shakier than ever before, according to a report prepared for top levels of the Canadian government.

http://tinyurl.com/ywn5d8


From Information Clearing House

The scale of civilian casualties at the hands of British and US forces is losing us the war - as I know from experience.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2101516,00.html



15 Taliban, young girl killed in occupied Afghanistan

Fifteen Taliban and a young girl were reported killed on Wednesday in clashes in Afghanistan as US defence officials said Nato needed more soldiers and equipment to fight the insurgents.

http://tinyurl.com/2yfeku



U.S. occupation troops mistakenly kills 8 Afghan cops

Mistaking each other for the enemy, Afghan police fired four dozen grenades and U.S.-led coalition troops fought back with helicopter gunships in a fierce battle that left eight officers dead before dawn Tuesday, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence


From Information Clearing House

Das Märchen vom beliebten Entwicklungshelfer in Bundeswehruniform und vom verhassten US-Rambo fliegt auf

„Jahrelang wurde eine erbauliche Mär über den Afghanistankrieg gepflegt: Es war einmal eine Handvoll abgrundtief böser Terroristen, die haben das Mutterland der Freiheit angegriffen. Außerdem war da in Afghanistan eine Herrschaft, die auch nur Böses wollte, nämlich Frauen verschleiern und die Terroristen beherbergen. Da konnten die USA nicht länger zusehen und haben zusammen mit ihren Freunden in einem Blitzkrieg die Herrschaft der Taliban beendet und dem dortigen Volk Freiheit und Demokratie spendiert. Seitdem sind europäisch inspirierte „Friedenstruppen“ namens ISAF – die deutschen vor allem im „relativ ruhigen“ Norden – mit dem zivilen Wiederaufbau beschäftigt, während die Amerikaner sich um die Ausräucherung der paar Terroristen kümmern, die den Bombenterror überlebt haben. Speziell in Deutschland wurde dazu noch das leicht rassistische Bild vom Ami gepflegt, der eh nur zuschlagen kann, während uns europäischen Feingeistern Krieg im Prinzip zuwider und die Bundeswehr in Afghanistan so was wie ein THW in Tarnfarben ist – weithin beliebt bei den Einheimischen....“ Artikel von Theo Wentzke, zuerst erschienen unter dem Titel „Kriegsmotor Konkurrenz. In Afghanistan treten Probleme der NATO offen zutage: USA und EU kämpfen dort auch um die Führungsposition im Militärbündnis“ in der jungen Welt vom 22.05.2007 http://www.labournet.de/krieg/wentzke.html


Aus: LabourNet, 12. Juni 2007