www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/world/asia/23afghan.html
Autos US Airstrike at Taliban Kills Civilians, Afghans Say Tyler Hicks/The New York Times A 3-year-old Afghan boy, with burns that his uncle said had come from an American bombing, was comforted Monday in a Kandahar hospital.
Taliban fighters bombed a village in southern Afghanistan on Sunday night and early Monday, killing 16 civilians and wounding 15, among them women and children, the local governor and villagers said Monday.
com/chinarises >> The American-led coalition said it had conducted a "successful operation" in the area, and had killed from 20 to 80 Taliban fighters in the bombing, which struck the village of Tolokan. The governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khalid, expressed concern over the civilian casualties after visiting the wounded in the Kandahar city hospital, but he also urged civilians not to allow Taliban fighters to take refuge in their homes. "As they were chased by the coalition, the enemy hid in civilian houses, and as it was nighttime and difficult to tell who is enemy and who is civilian, unfortunately we have civilian casualties also," the governor said. Paul Fitzpatrick, said in a statement issued in Kabul, the Afghan capital, that he was aware of reports of civilian casualties, and that coalition forces were reviewing reports from the ground.
Hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters have battled Afghan and coalition forces in several southern provinces, resulting in scores of deaths. Fighting that began last Wednesday has been raging in the Panjwai district, about 15 miles west of the city of Kandahar. In the Sunday night operation, coalition forces, led by Canadian troops on the ground and supported by American planes, mounted their second operation in a week against a large Taliban presence in and near Panjwai, a military statement said. "The purpose of this operation was to detain individuals suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities," said the statement, issued from Kabul. "These individuals were active members of the Taliban network and have conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces as well as civilians." The coalition encountered organized resistance and called in additional ground and air support, another statement said. Planes started bombing close to midnight Sunday and continued for four or five hours into Monday, said residents of Tolokan. Mohammed Rafiq, a 23-year-old farmer, said the bombs had caused enormous destruction. Another farmer, Azizullah, 30, said three members of his family had been killed. "I was at home when the Taliban came to our village last night," he said. "After some time, US planes came and bombed the Taliban, and they bombed us, too." When he went out in the morning to go to the hospital, he said, he saw dozens of dead Taliban fighters on the ground, apparently killed in the aerial bombardment. Sixteen villagers were also killed and 15 were wounded, he and other villagers said. Fifteen wounded people were in the hospital, including an 8-month-old baby, doctors confirmed. Another villager, Taj Muhammad, said two of his brothers had been killed, and others in his family were wounded. He said that when the bombing started, the Taliban were desperately trying to take shelter and were not trying to fight.
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