US-Led Airstrike Kills 30 Afghan Civilians

Villagers deliver bodies to provincial capital as proof
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2009 11:23 AM CDT
US-Led Airstrike Kills 30 Afghan Civilians
In this photo taken Sunday, May 3, 2009, US Army Lieutenant Colonel Brett Jenkinson scans the ridge line outside the US base Camp Michigan.    (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Afghan villagers bore the bodies of 30 civilian victims of a US-led airstrike to a provincial council as proof of the coalition operation’s deadly price, provincial officials reported to the AP today. When fighting broke out yesterday between militants and coalition forces in Farah province, villagers herded their women, children, and elderly into compounds away from the fighting. But an airstrike targeted those compounds, perhaps suspecting they held enemy reinforcements.

One official estimated that there were 100 civilian casualties. After bringing the bodies to the provincial council, the villagers were seen shouting and crying in front of the governor’s office.The US military acknowledges a battle in the region and said it was looking into the alleged civilian deaths.
(More civilian casualties stories.)

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