Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com & War Is Boring.com & NewNews – 2017-11-08 18:40:31
US Strikes Soaring in Afghanistan, Along With Civilian Deaths
US Strikes Soaring in Afghanistan,
Along With Civilian Deaths:
UN Expresses Concern Over Mounting Casualties
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(November 7, 2017) — With the US once again escalating the war in Afghanistan, the number of US warplanes dropping munitions on the central Asian country are on the rise, and with it, the number of civilians being killed in those strikes.
Seemingly every month the US announces that coalition munitions dropped are up dramatically from the month prior, and while a lot of the civilian casualties are officially still just “under investigation,” the UN is openly expressing concern about the rising toll.
The UN has reported 466 civilian casualties, including 205 deaths, just in the first nine months of 2017, which is already a 52% increase from the number killed in 2016. With strikes continuing to escalate, the final figure will only be higher.
This comes amid reports that the US strikes in Iraq and Syria are on the decline, which may allow more of America’s air power to be recommitted further east to Afghanistan, where insurgents still hold vast amounts of territory, and where the Afghan government is generally ambivalent about incidents in which civilians are slain.
In Afghanistan, More Air Raids Mean
More Civilian Deaths: Air strikes spiked in September 2017
War Is Boring.com
(November 7, 2017) — Afghans living in at least three villages in Chardara district of Kunduz province in Afghanistan were in a rude shock on the evening of Nov. 3, 2017. In a bid to support the Afghan National Army in its ongoing battle against Taliban insurgency in Kunduz, American warplanes trained down munitions on what their pilots apparently believed were enemy targets.
According to media reports, no fewer than 13 civilians are believed to have been killed in these air strikes. However, sources working closely with Afghan forces informed War Is Boring that one was killed and six others injured, and could not verify if any of them were in fact civilians. War Is Boring is unable to confirm the veracity of these claims.
Additionally, in a statement shared with War Is Boring, Resolute Support — the US-led mission in Afghanistan — acknowledged the incident. “We are aware of allegations regarding the potential for civilian casualties as the result of combined operations in northern Afghanistan,” Capt. Tom Gresback, a military spokesperson, told War Is Boring.
The coalition “takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously,” Gresback added. “An investigation of the incident is being conducted.”
Since US president Donald Trump announced his new Afghan strategy in the summer of 2017, escalating US air strikes have allegedly claimed several civilian lives in Herat and Logar provinces. The coalition and the Afghan government have acknowledged the Logar and Herat incidents and have launched investigations into both attacks.
The Pentagon reported that its forces expended 751 aerial munitions on Taliban, Islamic State and Khorasan Group targets in September 2017 — a 50-percent increase over August.
Residents of Kunduz province have found themselves caught between insurgents and the pro-government forces several times since 2015. In late 2015, a US air strike targeted a Medecins Sans Frontieres facility in the province, killing 42 civilians. In 2016, coalition air raids in the province killed 32 civilians and injured 36 others, mainly women and children.
Air strikes have contributed to steadily rising civilian casualties in 2017. In its third quarter report, the UN mission in Afghanistan reiterated its concern over continued increases in civilian casualties from aerial attacks, particularly among women and children.
“During the first nine months of 2017, the mission documented 466 civilian casualties (205 deaths and 261 injured), a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from air strikes compared to the same period in 2016,” UNAMA reported.
Saudi Air Strike Kill 30 Civilians in Yemen’s Hajja
NewNews
(November 7, 2017) — More than 30 civilians, mostly women and children have lost their lives after Saudi military aircraft launched 18 air strikes on Haran area of Yemen’s province, which was the scene of a similar massacre days earlier.
The fatalities were caused by Saudi air raids against residential building belong to Hamdi Jumae. The house involves his brothers’ family, which all of them were died.
According to the people of the region, they had faced difficulties in carrying out evacuation operations as the aggression’s jets were hovering massively, targeting any one has tried to approach to the pounded house. As well, five cars were completely damaged.
The people of the region have launched an appeal to UN and all humanitarian organizations enforce the coalition of aggression to stop its war crimes against Yemeni innocent people, to provide access to victims and rescue those who can be saved.
The strike came days after Saudi-led jets hit several areas, including a marketplace, in Sa’ada, leaving at least 29 civilians dead.
Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its allies have been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.
Saudi Arabia and its alliance have continued to target innocent civilians, taking advantage of the silence of the world, the complicity of an international society and subjected to total bloody disregard by Saudi-American aggression that engages in international terrorism in its ugliest form.
[WARNING: Article contains graphic images of murdered civilians.]
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