{"article":{"id":13913,"heading":"U.S. Raid Kills 100 Afghans","author":"Reuters","created":"2002-01-01 18:52:49","modified":"2002-01-02 09:02:58","last_modified":"Wed, 02 Jan 2002 16:02:58","article":"

QALAYE NIAZI, Afghanistan\/KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes killed over 100 people in a weekend raid in eastern Afghanistan, villagers said Monday . Witnesses said at least one U.S. fighter jet, a B-52 bomber and two helicopters had swooped early Sunday morning on the village of Qalaye Niazi, about 2.5 miles north of the city of Gardez, capital of Paktia province.

\"There are no al Qaeda or Taliban people here, \"insisted villager Janat Gul. The raid seemed sure to stir up tensions between those factions in Kabul's U.N.-backed interim administration that want the U.S. bombing campaign to halt and those who believe the raids -- under way since October 7 -- should continue.

At Qalaye Niazi, Janat Gul said 24 members of his family alone were killed in Sunday's pre-dawn U.S. bombing raid and described himself as the sole survivor: \"People are very upset about what is going on here,\" he said.

Survivors removed scraps of wood -- virtually all that appeared to be left of 12 houses. Amid the devastation, a Reuters cameraman could see scraps of flesh, large pools of blood and clumps of what appeared to be human hair. A member of the local tribal shura, or council, at Qalaye Niazi said they had invited U.S. forces to come to the village to see the damage and to find out what had happened.

In the United States, Major Pete Mitchell, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said: \"We are aware of the incident and we are currently investigating.\"<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"U.S. warplanes killed over 100 people in a weekend raid in eastern Afghanistan, villagers said Monday.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/01\/13913.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":13925,"heading":"No response?","article":"\r\n\r\n I know that the people of the united states of america felt a great loss concerning what happened on the 11th of september..........but please...don't anyone see what is wrong with the picture? Three thousand innocent civilians..it is sad, but if numbers are to be used, what about the millions of civilian lifes that are lost because of the foreign policy of the united states. M. Albright: (more or less)\"The death of 500 000 Iraqi children is an accepable price to pay, for the resriction put upon Saddam Hussain\". .......and the bombs are still falling over Iraq. Now 100 Afgans in one blow(could be Taliban fighters, but no-one is sure) Is it worth it?\r\n And more importantly: these cases are not unique. I can mention: Korea, Vietnam, Japan(atomic-bombs on the top of two cities....the war was practicly over anyways), Colombia, Iran,Palestine(one comment here though: who is the terrorist? There are three times as many dead palestinians as there are Israelies, and they are being occupied by Isreal. The USA have used its veto in the security council nomerous times to block international intervention like the palestinians are begging for) ..and many many more.\r\n What happened on the 11th was bound to happen. My biggest surprise is that a lot of people were surprised. Don't get me wrong however: what happened was unforgivable. But think: the way you all feel now(or felt), this is how the great USA is percived in a great many parts of the world. Your actions are unforgivable.\r\nAnd what I see as the worst of it all is that the general public do not know how the foreign policy of the USA is, and therefore do not understand why these attacs came, and were directed like they were. The general public do not know,and the politics are therefore not representable.\r\n.....again what is the solution to the problem is quite simple: knowledge. That is it(unless you are a sociopath and have no empathy for anyone but yourself).\r\n\r\nIt is pretty funny at times though; \"American\" politics that is. You have a president who in his first speech said: \"let't now put politics behind us and move forward\" ....an explanation of how stupid this is should not be needed.\r\n\"The greatest democracy of the world\" : less then 50% actually vote.\r\n\r\nWell....I recon that should be enough for the timebeing. By the way: feel free too check the information given here, and then make up your minds afterwards. \r\n\r\n\r\nHasta luego","author":"K-NUT","parent_id":13913,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-01-02 09:02:58","modified":"2002-01-02 09:52:15","fileurl":""}]}