Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Officials in Afghanistan have expressed shock at the suggestion of America’s top general that local citizens burned their own children to make the U.S. military look bad following an attack in the mountainous region of Konar province.
The Washington Post reported that the exact language used by General David Petraeus during a closed-door meeting at the presidential palace of leader Hamid Karzai was unknown. But Karzai’s aides insisted Petraeus was out-of-line when he said civilians had invented stories or injured their own children.
“I was dizzy. My head was spinning,” one meeting participant told the Post in reference to Petraeus’s remarks. “This was shocking. Would any father do this to his children? This is really absurd.”
Another Afghan at the meeting said that Petraeus implied that some parents had “decided to create a civilian casualty claim to pressure international forces to cease the [operation]. They burned hands and legs of some of their children and sent them to the hospital.”
U.S. officials have insisted no civilians died during the three- to four-day operation in the mountains of Ghaziabad district.
The governor of Konar, Fazlullah Wahidi, has disagreed with this assessment, claiming 64 people were killed, including 13 insurgents, 22 women, 26 boys and 3 old men.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Petraeus's Comments on Coalition Attack Reportedly Offend Karzai Government (by Joshua Partlow, Washington Post)
NATO Airstrike Is Said to Kill Afghan Civilians (by Alissa Rubin, New York Times)
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