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Afghanistan: Analysis: Pattern Emerging Of Faulty Intelligence From U.S.’s Afghan Allies
Monday, July 22, 2002
By Ron Synovitz
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

A pattern is emerging in Afghanistan of cases in which U.S. air strikes intended to target Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters are instead killing civilians. In many cases, the mistakes appear to be the result of faulty information provided by Afghan fighters who are supposed to be working with U.S.-led coalition forces. An investigative piece published by "The New York Times" yesterday says some Afghan factions are intentionally providing incorrect information to U.S. forces in order to target their Afghan rivals. In this news analysis, RFE/RL reports that coalition forces appear to be getting caught in the middle of disputes between rival Afghan factions.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- RFE/RL
When tribal elders from southeast Afghanistan tried to travel to the inauguration of Afghan leader Hamid Karzai last December, they were mistakenly bombed by a U.S. B-52. U.S. military officials initially believed the vehicles were carrying members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Survivors of the air strike say their convoy had been stopped minutes before the bombing at a roadblock manned by fighters under the command of one of their longtime rivals, the ethnic Pashtun warlord Padshah Khan Zadran.

At the time, Zadran was considered a key U.S. ally in southeast Afghanistan. The survivors allege that Zadran himself called in the air strikes as revenge in a longtime feud. They say Zadran knowingly lied to U.S. military officials by informing them that their convoy carried Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders.

U.S. officials have since admitted they may have received faulty intelligence in that case. And in the months that have followed, Zadran has continued the feud by launching a series of rocket and artillery barrages against civilians in Paktia's provincial capital of Gardez.

As a result, Washington has publicly distanced itself from Zadran. Today, the warlord is no longer being called a U.S. ally. He has gone into hiding, and there are indications he is being hunted by the very coalition forces that had once called him their key Pashtun ally.
(More: RFERL.org News Source)
2002 © Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Dan