NATO killing Afghan children again

This video is called END WAR In Afghanistan US Helicopter Slaughters 9 Children Collecting Firewood, US Apologizes.

Afghan Air Strike Kills 9 Children.

From Reuters:

Tuesday March 15, 2011

NATO air strike killed two Afghan children in east – officials

KABUL – An air strike by NATO-led forces killed two children as they were watering fields in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province late on Monday, an Afghan official and lawmaker said.

The deaths occurred weeks after tensions between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers were inflamed by the killing of nine children who were collecting firewood in the same province.

Last year was the most lethal for non-combatants since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, with a 15 percent rise in civilian casualties to 2,777 according to a report by the United Nations last week. …

Abdul Marjan, district chief of Chawki in Kunar where the two brothers, aged 10 and 15, where killed on Monday, said the boys had been working on irrigation channels before they were hit.

“They might have been mistaken for insurgents as they were carrying spades on their shoulders,” Marjan told Reuters.

Shahzada Shahid, a lawmaker from Kunar, said the pair were students who had gone out to help work their father’s fields.

Irrigation agreements between villagers in the area mean the family’s land gets access to river water only in the evening.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force,(ISAF) said an air strike in Chawki on Monday evening targeted two suspected insurgents, killing one and wounding another after they were seen planting a roadside bomb.

He added that ISAF were looking into media reports of civilian casualties.

…

Karzai this month told General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, that his apology for the strike that killed nine children was “not enough”, and civilian casualties by foreign troops were “no longer acceptable” to the Afghan government or people.

(Reporting by Rohullah Anwari, writing by Hamid Shalizi, editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)

See also here.

U.S. officials have suspended the contract of an auditing team advising the Afghan Central Bank for failing to disclose early signs of widespread corruption at the country’s largest private bank before its revelation last fall triggered a destabilizing crisis: here.

When you hear Petraeus’ “progress” spin, just remember…you’ve heard all of this before. Video here.

General Petraeus, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, told Congress that the occupation of the Central Asian country would go on indefinitely, amidst reports of sharply increased civilian casualties: here.

KABUL, Afghanistan — When a brother and nephew of an Afghan vice president wanted to build up their fuel transport business, they took out a $19 million loan from Kabul Bank. When a brother of the president wanted to start a cement factory, he took out a $2.9 million loan; he also took out $7.9 million for a luxury townhouse in Dubai. When the bank’s chief executive officer wanted to invest in newly built apartments in Kabul, he took almost $18 million: here.