Australian soldiers’ bloody revenge in Afghanistan

This is a video from Australia about the movement against the war in Afghanistan.

By Mark Church:

Australian soldiers launch reprisal over “green on blue” incident

By Mark Church

4 September 2012

Australian forces hunting the Afghan National Army fugitive who killed three Australian soldiers last week have shot dead two people in a raid on the village of Sola in the southern province of Uruzgan. According to various news reports, the soldiers killed the 70-year-old imam of the village and his 30-year-old son, and detained 12 other people. A woman was among those detained, provoking outrage among the ethnic Pashtun tribesmen whose village was invaded. The raid took place on August 31, three days after the deaths of the Australian soldiers in a “green on blue” incident.

The assault on the village was a neo-colonial act of collective punishment, designed to terrorise Sola’s inhabitants for their alleged support for Sergeant Hekmatullah, the man accused of killing the Australian troops.

Sardar Mohammed told the Australian newspaper

So, a daily in the pro-war Murdoch empire. Not your so-called “liberal media”, conservative readers of this blog.

that Australian forces arrived in non-military vehicles Friday night while most of the village’s inhabitants were praying at the mosque. “They brought everyone out of the mosque and houses and tied their hands,” he said. “It was about 20 to 25 people and they started beating them a little bit … As soon as they captured me, they put a hood over my eyes,” he said.

Mr Sardar said no-one had seen the two men being killed as they were all hooded at the time but they had heard two shots fired. He denied the slain men were involved in the anti-occupation insurgency. “They were not Taliban, they were poor people,” he insisted.

Mr Sardar claimed that the 12 detained individuals were driven to the Australian army base at Tarin Kowt and questioned about a Taliban commander named Hekmet, who is believed to be connected to Sergeant Hekmatullah. Eleven were released, but one was held in custody.

In its initial statement, the Australian military claimed that the village raid had been “approved in accordance with normal process” and the men killed had been “engaged in accordance with the rules of engagement.”

The local village council chief, however, has insisted that only Australian troops carried out the assault on his community. This breached an agreement between the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai and NATO that all night-time raids be carried out under the command of Afghan forces. The village head also denied that those killed and detained were Taliban fighters or supporters. “They’re civilised people, they’re shopkeepers and tailors,” he said.

An Uruzgan journalist told the Australian that locals were furious over the arrest of a local woman and her interrogation at the Australia base in Tarin Kowt. Australian defence minister Stephen Smith later admitted that this was the first known occurrence of a woman being detained “according to our records”.

The anger in Uruzgan over the raid compelled the Karzai regime to issue a statement distancing itself from the blatant revenge attack by Australian forces.

“The president condemns the operation as a breach of the memorandum of understanding signed between Afghanistan and NATO on the special military operations,” the statement read.

Raz Mohammad Khan and his adult son Abdul Jalil were shot dead in their home in the village of Sola, Oruzgan province, by Australian troops on August 31: here.

America’s shocking waste in Afghanistan: here.