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              Afghan air strike kills dozens
Friday, June 22nd, 2007
An air assault by Nato-led forces has killed at least 25 Afghan civilians, police officials said. Twelve members of one family were believed to have been killed in the joint Afghan-foreign forces strike in Helmand province on Thursday night. Up to 20 Taliban fighters were also among the dead. Nato said its forces called in airstrikes after being attacked by Taliban fighters using a compound north of Lashkar Gah. Nato’s International Security Assistance Force issued a statement saying it was “investigating reports that a small number of civilians may also have been in the compound.” Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Smith, a Nato spokesman, said he was concerned about reports of civilian loss of life. “However, it must be noted that it was insurgents who initiated this attack, and in choosing to conduct such attacks in this location and at the time, the risk to civilians was probably deliberate.” The Taliban confirmed its fighters from the group had ambushed troops in the area but said its fighters “left the area before the air strike,” Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman, said. Fighting intensifying Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief, said on Friday that fighters had attacked police posts in the south of the country, sparking clashes and the air strikes that left 45 dead. The dead included nine women and three children aged from six months to two years old, police said. Andiwal said the fighters used civilian houses for cover in Gereshk district of Helmand. On Thursday, suspected Taliban members had attacked a police patrol in eastern Afghanistan, killing three officers and wounding another. With fighting intensifying, especially in Afghanistan’s south and east, Taliban and other militants are locked in daily battles with foreign and Afghan troops trying to support the government of Hamid Karzai, the president. In all, more than 2,400 people - most of them alleged fighters - have died in fighting this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Appeal to Canada Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary-general, has urged Canada to prolong its mission in Afghanistan beyond February 2009, as Canadians mourn the deaths of three more soldiers this week. “If you ask me: will the Nato mission continue? My answer is categorically ‘yes,’” he told reporters on Thursday at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal. “I would of course hope, as the secretary general of Nato … that [February 2009] is not the end of (Canada’s military mission), and that is my message to Canadians,” he said, adding that it would take more time to rebuild and develop democratic institutions in the country. In the afternoon, de Hoop Scheffer privately met Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, in Ottawa, as well as Peter MacKay, the foreign affairs minister and Gordon O’Connor, the defence minister. Canada has deployed 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Harper’s minority Conservative government has refused to say if it is considering an extension, but managed to scuttle an opposition motion in the House of Commons in April demanding a fixed withdrawal date. De Hoop Scheffer’s request to extend the mission comes one day after three Canadian soldiers died in a roadside blast in the Kandahar region. Ninety-one foreign soldiers have now died in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat and about half of them from the US which has the most soldiers in the international operation in Afghanistan. Wednesday’s attack brought Canada’s death toll in Afghanistan since 2002 to 60. A senior Canadian diplomat was also killed in an attack. With Canadian casualties mounting, public support seems to be waning. Taliban on the wane? Meanwhile, a senior Afghan leader has said that the Taliban is on the wane and that he is optimistic about the country’s future. Karim Khalili, Afghanistan’s second vice-president, told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday: “We are hopeful about our future because the Taliban’s attempts to expand their influence have failed so far.” The Taliban is fighting against the Western-backed government after it was overthrown by US-led forces in 2001. Khalili said: “The Taliban’s activity is weakening if you compare the number of terrorist attacks attempted by them this year and last year.” Khalili was in Tokyo for a conference on the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG), a UN-backed project with Japanese funding that aims to improve central government control in Afghanistan. He held talks on Thursday with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister. Have Your Say: Afghan air strike kills dozens Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
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