**Updates: At least 3700 Afghani Civilians KIlled by US Bombs!

**Also: Unicef Says Afghan Children Need Immediate Aid to Survive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DECEMBER 10, 2001

10:00 AM

CONTACT: Marc Herold

Marc Herold (603) 862-3375

Andrea Buffa (510) 839-8911



3,500 Civilians Killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Bombs

University of New Hampshire Economics Professor Releases Study of Civilian

Casualties in Afghanistan Monday Morning on Democracy Now! Radio/TV Show



DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE - December 10 - More than 3,500 civilians have been

killed in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs, according to a study to be released

December 10 by Marc W. Herold, Professor of Economics, International

Relations, and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Professor

Herold will announce his findings on Monday, December 10 in a discussion

with

award-winning journalist, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! in Exile's War and

Peace Report (http://www.democracynow.org).

**Link to the DN! Report:

http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/exile/dn20011210.ra&sta

rt="9:53.7"

Professor Herold has been gathering data on civilian casualties since October

7 by culling information from news agencies, major newspapers, and first-hand

accounts. "I decided to do the study because I suspected that the modern

weaponrywas not what it was advertised to be. I was concerned that there

would be significant civilian casualties caused by the bombing, and I was

able to find some mention of casualties in the foreign press but almost

nothing in the U.S. press," said Herold.

Herold's data is available at: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/ (On MS

Excel spread sheet format) or

MS Word Format: http://www.democracynow.org/thndtrmb.doc

For each day since October 7, when the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan began, he

lists the number of casualties, location, type of weapon used, and source(s)

of information. Following are several examples from his daily calculations:

* On October 11, two U.S. jets bombed the mountain village of Karam,

comprised of 60 mud houses, during dinner and evening prayer time, killing

100-160 people. Sources: DAWN, (English language Pakistani daily newspaper),

the Guardian of London, the Independent, International Herald Tribune, the

Scotsman, the Observer, and the BBC News.



* On October 13, in the early morning, an F-18 dropped 2,000 lb. JDAM bombs

on the Qila Meer Abas neighborhood, 2 kms. South of the Kabul airport,

killing four people. Sources: Afghan Islamic Press, Los Angeles Times,

Frontier Post, Pakistan Observer, the Guardian of London, and the BBC News.



* On October 31, in a pre-dawn raid, an F-18 dropped a 2,000 lb. JDAM bomb

on a Red Crescent clinic, killing 15 - 25 people. Sources: DAWN, the Times of

London, the Independent, the Guardian, Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence

France Presse.



Professor Herold has sought whenever possible to cross-corroborate accounts

of civilian casualties. He relied upon British, Canadian, and Australian

newspapers; Indian newspapers, especially The Times of India; three Pakistani

daily newspapers; the Singapore News; Afghan Islamic Press; Agence France

Press; Pakistan News Service; Reuters; BBC News Online; Al Jazeera; and a

variety of other reputable sources, including the United Nations and other

relief agencies.

The Pentagon has repeatedly denied reports of civilian casualties in

Afghanistan, and most U.S. media outlets have qualified their reports of

casualties with the statement "could not be independently confirmed." But

Professor Herold has been able to confirm the number of casualties and has

found that the number is climbing toward 4,000. "People have to know that

there is a human cost to war, and that this is a war with thousands of

casualties," said Herold. "These were poor people to begin with, and, on top

of that, they had absolutely nothing to do with the events of September 11."

==================================================

Unicef Says Afghan Children Need Immediate Aid to

Survive

by Elizabeth Olson

Published on Sunday, December 9, 2001 in the New

York Times

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1209-02.htm



GENEVA, Dec. 8