NOVANEWS
Residents of a village in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province say a Sept. 7 attack killed 14 civilians, most of them their relatives. The U.S. says 11 were killed, mostly Taliban fighters.
Abdul Ghafar, 19, who said he lost his mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the drone attack, says he is hungry for vengeance. “If I could attack them, I would,” he said of U.S. forces.
The men seethed with resentment as they recounted details of the attack. Hazrat Gul, 38, who said he lost several relatives, demanded proof that the dead were armed insurgents.
“We have the ID cards of these civilians. We have their graves,” said Gul, who said he lent out his pickup that day. “If someone can prove these were Taliban, I would accept any punishment.”
The village men said the attack convinced them that Karzai was justified in rejecting the security accord. They want U.S. soldiers out of their lives forever.
“This agreement will only bring more misery,” said Gul, a stout, bearded man who wore a traditional wool pakol cap. “The Americans say they are here to protect us. No — they’re here to kill us and terrorize our women and children.”
As the men spoke, a drone passed slowly overhead, the dull whine of its turboprop engine audible over the din of traffic in the crowded city of Jalalabad, a three-hour drive from Ganbir.
“Look! You see it?” said Rahmat Gul, 55, Hazrat Gul’s cousin. He squinted up at the drone as it drifted across a brilliant blue sky.
“These be-pilots fly over our village almost every day,” he said, using a Pashto term that means a plane without a pilot. “They spy on people and steal their lives. Children are afraid to go to school. People are afraid to stand in a group because they fear these planes will shoot a missile at them.”
An hour later, a second drone buzzed overhead. The four men barely glanced up.
From his pocket, Jan, who sports a tangled black beard, produced a color photo of the only survivor of the attack, his 4-year-old niece, Haisha. It showed the girl’s disfigured face, her mouth and lower jaw blown away. Jan said the girl was horribly burned and blinded in both eyes, lost her left arm and needed reconstructive facial surgery.
Haisha was treated at ISAF hospitals at Kabul airport and at Bagram airfield, the men said. Col. Crichton confirmed that the coalition had provided medical transportation and care for Haisha.
Rahmat Gul said doctors at the Kabul hospital told him that Karzai wept at the sight of the girl’s ravaged face.
“If the president of our country cries and accuses the Americans and still nothing is done, what can we do?” Hazrat Gul asked. “We are poor people from the countryside. We have no power.”
Jan pulled out a creased copy of a Dari-language letter from Karzai to Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in which Karzai pleaded for coalition medical assistance for Haisha.
On his cellphone, Hazrat Gul displayed photos he said were taken the day of the attack. One shows the blackened face of an infant wrapped in a white funeral shroud. This, he said, was 18-month-old Jandullah, Jan’s nephew.
Another photo depicted what Gul said was the scorched wreckage of his pickup. Others showed what appeared to be corpses wrapped in bloodied burial shrouds, and a wrapped body lowered into a grave.
The men complained, as has Karzai for years, of U.S. military night raids. Five years ago, Gul said, U.S. soldiers stormed his house at night. He said he, his two brothers and his father were handcuffed, detained and interrogated before being released.
After the Sept. 7 airstrike, the men said, angry villagers confronted Gov. Jalala in the provincial capital, Asadabad. They demanded an apology from the United States. The governor told them it was “an American affair” and he could do nothing, the men said.
The villagers said the families had received no compensation from the coalition. Crichton said that a condolence payment was made to one family but that the ISAF had not identified other families who may have suffered losses.
“We don’t want compensation,” Jan said. “We want the Americans to find the person who reported Taliban and terrorists in that truck, and we want him prosecuted and punished for his lies.”
The men scoffed at U.S. insistence that the rights of Afghan women be improved. “Is it women’s rights when they kill women and mix their body parts with men’s?” Jan asked.
With drones flying over their villages, the men said, they sleep the uneasy sleep of the fearful. Another strike or raid could come at any time.
The villagers say they cling to their best evidence that the United States kills and maims Afghan civilians — the lone survivor, Haisha.
“God’s gift,” said white-bearded Rahmat Gul, glancing up at the sky. “God left her alive as proof.”
“We have the ID cards of these civilians. We have their graves,” said Gul, who said he lent out his pickup that day. “If someone can prove these were Taliban, I would accept any punishment.”
The village men said the attack convinced them that Karzai was justified in rejecting the security accord. They want U.S. soldiers out of their lives forever.
“This agreement will only bring more misery,” said Gul, a stout, bearded man who wore a traditional wool pakol cap. “The Americans say they are here to protect us. No — they’re here to kill us and terrorize our women and children.”
As the men spoke, a drone passed slowly overhead, the dull whine of its turboprop engine audible over the din of traffic in the crowded city of Jalalabad, a three-hour drive from Ganbir.
“Look! You see it?” said Rahmat Gul, 55, Hazrat Gul’s cousin. He squinted up at the drone as it drifted across a brilliant blue sky.
“These be-pilots fly over our village almost every day,” he said, using a Pashto term that means a plane without a pilot. “They spy on people and steal their lives. Children are afraid to go to school. People are afraid to stand in a group because they fear these planes will shoot a missile at them.”
An hour later, a second drone buzzed overhead. The four men barely glanced up.
From his pocket, Jan, who sports a tangled black beard, produced a color photo of the only survivor of the attack, his 4-year-old niece, Haisha. It showed the girl’s disfigured face, her mouth and lower jaw blown away. Jan said the girl was horribly burned and blinded in both eyes, lost her left arm and needed reconstructive facial surgery.
Haisha was treated at ISAF hospitals at Kabul airport and at Bagram airfield, the men said. Col. Crichton confirmed that the coalition had provided medical transportation and care for Haisha.
Rahmat Gul said doctors at the Kabul hospital told him that Karzai wept at the sight of the girl’s ravaged face.
“If the president of our country cries and accuses the Americans and still nothing is done, what can we do?” Hazrat Gul asked. “We are poor people from the countryside. We have no power.”
Jan pulled out a creased copy of a Dari-language letter from Karzai to Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in which Karzai pleaded for coalition medical assistance for Haisha.
On his cellphone, Hazrat Gul displayed photos he said were taken the day of the attack. One shows the blackened face of an infant wrapped in a white funeral shroud. This, he said, was 18-month-old Jandullah, Jan’s nephew.
Another photo depicted what Gul said was the scorched wreckage of his pickup. Others showed what appeared to be corpses wrapped in bloodied burial shrouds, and a wrapped body lowered into a grave.
The men complained, as has Karzai for years, of U.S. military night raids. Five years ago, Gul said, U.S. soldiers stormed his house at night. He said he, his two brothers and his father were handcuffed, detained and interrogated before being released.
After the Sept. 7 airstrike, the men said, angry villagers confronted Gov. Jalala in the provincial capital, Asadabad. They demanded an apology from the United States. The governor told them it was “an American affair” and he could do nothing, the men said.
The villagers said the families had received no compensation from the coalition. Crichton said that a condolence payment was made to one family but that the ISAF had not identified other families who may have suffered losses.
“We don’t want compensation,” Jan said. “We want the Americans to find the person who reported Taliban and terrorists in that truck, and we want him prosecuted and punished for his lies.”
The men scoffed at U.S. insistence that the rights of Afghan women be improved. “Is it women’s rights when they kill women and mix their body parts with men’s?” Jan asked.
With drones flying over their villages, the men said, they sleep the uneasy sleep of the fearful. Another strike or raid could come at any time.
The villagers say they cling to their best evidence that the United States kills and maims Afghan civilians — the lone survivor, Haisha.
“God’s gift,” said white-bearded Rahmat Gul, glancing up at the sky. “God left her alive as proof.”
