18 civilians killed by NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan

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But Haji Abdul Manan Agha, the tribal leader from the area, said two homes were bombed by coalition forces late Saturday. "In one home 18 people attending an engagement party were killed, including women, children and men," he said.

In the second house, eight Taliban were killed, he said. More than 30 people were wounded in both strikes, Agha said.

Mohammad Gul, a taxi driver who brought six wounded to a nearby hospital, also said that 18 civilians were killed in the clash.

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Hospital officials reported that two female bodies were among those brought to two local morgues, and a Sadr spokesman said four women had been killed. Angry relatives and neighbors vowed revenge as they carried the victims' coffins through the streets.

Sadr, whose militia U.S. military leaders accuse of sectarian killings and a campaign of harassment against American troops, denounced the air attacks and called on supporters to stage protests across the country.

The U.S. assault "resulted in killing 20 civilians, including women, children and elderly, and injuring tens more, some in critical condition," charged Nassar Rubaie, head of a parliamentary bloc loyal to Sadr.

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I'm guessing the pattern isn't simply "if the soldiers are in the country, civilians die needlessly", which would be my first guess.

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Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the A.C.L.U.’s National Security Project, said the documents show that “the government has gone out of its way to hide the human cost of this war.”

The lawsuit seeks to compel the military to produce all documents related to all civilian deaths since January 2005. The A.C.L.U. contends that the materials may be released under federal law.

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In two previously unreported cases, Pfc. James Combs was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for shooting an Iraqi woman from a guard tower in what he said was an accident, and Sgt. Ricky Burke was charged with murder for killing a wounded man alongside the road after a firefight.

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The statement said the number of Taleban militants killed in the past fortnight has gone up to nearly 200.

The Taleban said the report of fighting was "baseless" and that they had shot down a US helicopter.

There has been no independent confirmation of any of these claims or counter-claims.

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A counter-insurgency strategy neither starts nor stops with the military defeat of the insurgent: "The announcement of bold government initiatives to be started after the insurgency has been defeated can have real and significant effect on winning the hearts and minds of the population during any campaign. As with subduing a fire, the flames have to be out and the embers cold, before it can be considered finished". Which is to suggest that the work of Canada in places like Haiti and Afghanistan, where armed resistance continues to oppose the occupying forces, is long from complete, even once, or if, they ever manage to defeat the local armed resistances. Thus, alongside armed confrontation with resistances, the COIN doctrine places great emphasis on the role of the NGO sector in undermining popular support for insurgencies. Thus the ‘Hearts and Minds’ campaign is really nothing more than a façade, psychological warfare intended to divide a colonized population against itself and foster its dependency and reverence towards the colonizing force. The work of Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton, Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, illustrates a case in point, offering a comprehensive analysis of Canada’s use of NGOs (if we can even call them that) in undermining support for the popular and democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

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The articles is from "The Empire’s "Good Cop": Canada's New Counter-Insurgency Doctrine" and the quote is from the 'Draft’ document of Canada’s counter-insurgency doctrine (COIN).

Canada - the Empire's "Good cop".

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COIN: "When operating in support of a friendly government, the [Canadian Forces] must be seen to operate clearly in support of civil power and not in isolation from it. This can be accomplished more readily if the local security forces are incorporated into the military planning whenever possible, and the civil government is seen to be implementing those aspects of policy, planning, and control which closely affect military operations". In other words, civil authorities are to be, in effect, subordinate to the military authority of Canadian forces, whilst projecting the image of the obverse to the local population and the rest of the world.

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Civilians killed in Baghdad raid. U.S. and Iraqi troops killed three civilians during a raid yesterday in Sadr City, police and residents said. A U.S. military spokesman said the raid targeted a suspected Shia extremist who eluded capture. He said there were no reports of civilian or military casualties. But residents showed AP Television News the coffins of the people they said were killed in the raid - a woman and her two daughters. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed they were killed in the firefight.

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This one was buried very deeply (probably because the US military isn't acknowledging the deaths).

Also:

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Bomber attacks marketplace. A suicide bomber on a motorized rickshaw detonated explosives yesterday in a marketplace in southern Afghanistan, killing 28 people in one of the deadliest bombings since the fall of the Taliban. The attacker apparently was targeting a police commander when he detonated his bomb near a taxi stand around 6:30 p.m. in the town of Gereshk in Helmand province, site of the country's worst violence this year. The police commander survived.

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Fighting in Afghanistan killed about 75 people as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, officials said Thursday. In the southern province of Uruzgan, insurgents attacked a joint Afghan army and U.S.-led coalition patrol Wednesday with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, the coalition said in a statement. Afghan soldiers "cleared" Tali-ban fighters from firing positions within the village of Aduzay, while attack aircraft destroyed some fighting positions, it said. The coalition said more than 45 Taliban were killed.

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45 Taliban killed on first day of Ramadan, U.S. coalition says

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Airstrikes and Afghan army gunfire killed more than 45 suspected Taliban fighters in a clash in a southern province just as the holy month of Ramadan began, the U.S.-led coalition said.

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Iraqi police said nine were killed and 12 injured in shootings at Mansour, one of the busiest parts of Baghdad, when either American troops or private military contractors opened fire on a crowd after coming under sniper attack. The US military said the incident was being investigated.

Those shootings followed a car bomb outside a store on a street crowded with shoppers, killing three and wounding seven. Soon after, a mortar landed at the Shaab stadium near the city centre, killing two men.

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Ban said neighboring Syria and Jordan were struggling to accommodate fleeing Iraqis at a rate of 15,000 per week, "an enormous number of refugees."

"In that regard, parties involved I think have some moral obligation to do more for those refugees," said Ban. "I will try to see when will be opportune timing for me to discuss these matters with leaders of countries concerned."

Refugee advocacy groups say Iraqis are the fastest growing refugee population in the world, with figures now put at between 2 million and 2.5 million. They have criticized the U.S. for not shouldering enough of the burden.

According to U.N. statistics, about 1.5 million Iraqi refugees are in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 150,000 in Egypt, 50,000 in Iran and 20,000 in Turkey.

President George W. Bush's administration promised to accept 7,000 Iraqi refugees referred by the U.N. for resettlement during the current budget year, which runs from last October to Sept. 30, but announced in July that the number would be closer to 2,000.

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Heavy battles punctuated by air strikes killed 75 suspected Taliban and at least six civilians in Afghanistan's south, while a U.S. official on Friday accused Iran of supplying roadside bomb components to insurgents to get American soldiers "out of the region."

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I'm not sure why the Iranian accusation gets print in the same story as the NATO attack. Does some press agent fancy himself a magician?

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Women and children were among the six civilians killed in separate fighting in Helmand province's Gereshk region on Wednesday after Taliban guerrillas fled from NATO forces and sought shelter in homes, said Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan.

Taliban fighters attacked coalition forces from a housing compound that was later targeted in an air strike. ISAF said it was "unaware" civilians were in the area, but acknowledged civilian casualties.

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Iraqi investigators have a videotape showing that Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation last week, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday.

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"All of our poor workers have been killed," Jalili said. "I don't think the Americans were targeting our people. I'm sure it's the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information."

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