For a while there in August, Understanding Government was monitoring the heated dispute between U.S. military commanders and the Afghanistan government over the death toll of a U.S. air strike into Azizabad, Afghanistan. The U.S. military claimed that five civilians had died from the attack and 30 militants. But the Afghan govt.—and the United Nations—claimed the figure was actually 90 civilian deaths and few militant casualties.

The New York Times’ Eric Schmitt reports that U.S. military investigators have now revised that number to 30 civilian deaths and concur with few militants conclusion. The report, though,—which was ordered by David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan—is still far off the estimate by Afghanistan and the U.N. It also may contradict the New York Times’ itself, which reported cell phone pictures of mass graves after the attacks.

In other words, instead of putting an end to a complex tragedy that has enraged the Afghanistan govt., the military report may have furthered the confusion.-MB

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.