<

Karzai: No More Civilian Deaths
Wednesday, January 2, 2002
By Amy Waldman
Corpus Christi Caller-Times

An aide to Karzai said he believed that, as with the airstrikes on the convoy in Paktia, deliberately faulty intelligence may have been fed to U.S. officials. A fierce power struggle is raging in the region, largely over who will serve as governor of Paktia and its neighboring province, Paktika.

KABUL, Afghanistan
The chairman of Afghanistan's interim government, Hamid Karzai, said on Tuesday that he wanted the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan to continue until all terrorist activity is rooted out, but he also expressed concern about mounting civilian casualties.

With reports that up to 100 villagers in Paktia province had been killed in airstrikes overnight Saturday, Karzai said he planned to raise the issue of civilian deaths with U.S. officials this week. Tribal leaders from Paktia had already asked Karzai to halt the bombing of their province after the airstrikes 12 days ago on a convoy of tribal leaders en route to Kabul.

"We want to finish terrorists in Afghanistan - we want to finish them completely," Karzai said. "But we must also make sure our civilians do not suffer."

Asked when the civilian cost would become too high to justify the continuation of the bombing campaign, Karzai said, "We must make sure there is no civilian cost at all."

The Pentagon has accused the Taliban of exaggerating civilian casualties, and it has accused Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters of hiding among women and children. "This was a valid military target," said Cmdr. Dan Keesee, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. "If family members were taken there by Taliban or al-Qaeda individuals, then they placed their family members in harm's way."
(More: Caller.com News Source)
2001 © Caller-Times Publishing Co.

Dan