Forum Post: So sorry, we blew up another Afghan family

With screwups like this repeated ad nauseum, hundreds of billions of taxpayer money and US lives are hopelessly wasted. We'll NEVER succeed. Yet Obama signed a 10 year extension with Karzai and Romney wants to escalate. How NUTS are they?

May 7, 2012

U.S. Confirms Afghan Airstrike Mistake

By ROD NORDLAND

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/world/asia/united-states-confirms-airstrike-wrongly-killed-afghan-family-members.html?pagewanted=print

KABUL, Afghanistan — The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday.

The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack.

Mr. Mangal summoned the American regional commander, Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus of the Marines, to complain, and General Gurganus apologized, Mr. Ahmadi said.

A spokesman for the United States military in Helmand, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton, said, “We don’t have any issues with the governor’s statement.” He said American officials had been aware of the deaths and had immediately started an investigation.

“We expressed regret over the incident, and we’re investigating to determine how this happened,” Colonel Upton said.

“We are deeply saddened by any civilian death and particularly regret an incident where civilians are killed,” especially because of action by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, he said.

He added that General Gurganus “will be formally apologizing in the next couple of days to the family.”

The victims were the family’s mother and five of her children, three girls and two boys, according to Afghan officials.

In northern Afghanistan, 23 members of a wedding celebration drowned in severe flash flooding, according to the governor of Sar-i-Pul Province, Abdul Jabar Haqbeen, who went to the scene in the Dara Bala district. The bride and groom survived, he said.

The flooding in the mountainous northern province claimed at least five other lives, with four people still missing, he said.

Afghanistan had particularly heavy snowfall over the past winter, with numerous avalanches, and as spring melts begin, more flooding is feared.

Three members of the NATO coalition were killed on Monday in an improvised bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, according to a statement from the International Security Assistance Force, which did not give their nationalities pending notification of next of kin.

In southeastern Paktika Province, Afghan authorities said four suicide bombers attacked government buildings in the capital, Sharana, on Sunday night, but were subdued after an eight-hour firefight, which ended Monday in the deaths of the attackers. There were no government casualties and one civilian was lightly wounded, according to the province’s police chief, Gen. Dulat Khan Zadran, who said Afghan forces handled the attack without ISAF support.

Taimoor Shah and Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, and Farooq Mangal from Khost, Afghanistan.