Army Lies About Civilian Deaths, Then Calls Them “Appropriate”
Posted in H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts) on May 17th, 2007 6:09 am by HL
‘Appropriate’ force used in civilian death incident: US
AP
Excerpt
A US military commander used “appropriate level of force” during a battle last month in western Afghanistan in which dozens of civilians were reported killed, a senior US military official said Wednesday.
Brigadier General Perry Wiggins defended the actions of the commander on the scene as necessary and appropriate to protect his unit, which came under attack April 27 and 29 in the remote Zerkoh valley in Herat province.
Air strikes were called in by the US special operations forces during the fighting, and Afghan and UN officials later said as many as 50 civilians, including women and children, were killed.
“The on scene commander demonstrated sound judgement throughout the engagement,” Wiggins told reporters here.
“All targets were positively identified as hostile, (and) were under observation at the time of the engagement,” he said. “The on scene commander used appropriate level of force to respond to the continuous enemy threat and protect his unit.”
Wiggins said he did not know whether the US military had established how many, if any, civilians were killed in the fighting.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who protested after the event that civilian casualties had reached “unacceptable levels,” visited the Zerkoh valley on Wednesday and told villagers he had told foreign forces to take more care.
The commander of the unit was not identified.
Wiggins, the deputy operations director of the Joint Staff, said the legal findings made no mention of civilian casualties.
The coalition initially denied there had been civilian casualties, saying 136 Taliban fighters were killed. It said later it was investigating.
HLs Take
No, no civilians were killed I swear….oh they were…well thats ok it was appropriate anyway, no need to investigate
