HELMAND: The US drone that killed 40 civilians were attending a wedding party not the terrorists , officials in Helmand province said on Monday.
The raid, days after a US drone strike aimed at militants hiding among farmers killed 32 pine nut harvesters, showed how civilians have borne the brunt of a war that has re-intensified since US-Taliban peace talks collapsed two weeks ago.
Afghan officials said a house being used by the Taliban to train suicide bombers was located adjacent to the bride’s home that came under fire during the Sunday night’s commando assault in the Musa Qala area of Helmand in Afghanistan’s south. On Monday, 30-year-old Musa Qala resident Mohammad Salim carried bodies of cousins and relatives to a burial ground from a house decorated for his sister-in-law’s wedding. Salim and two senior provincial government officials said 40 people, including 12 children, were killed at the wedding venue when Afghan forces swooped on the house used by Taliban and al Qaeda militants to train male and female suicide bombers.
“We were going to the bride’s house for the henna ceremony, some of us were outside the home and some inside, (when) suddenly the battle began. We told the security forces that we were not members of the Taliban,” Salim told the international media “But both sides ended up killing civilians,” he said. Another 13 wedding party participants were injured.
A senior Afghan Defence Ministry official said the raid was against “a foreign terrorist group actively engaged in organising terrorist attacks”. He said government forces had also destroyed a large warehouse of militants’ equipment.
A second ministry official said a foreign militant detonated a suicide vest that killed him and others around him, including a woman, in response to the raid. “We are aware that civilians were injured in the attack,” he said.
The Helmand governor’s office said four senior Taliban commanders and the Taliban shadow governor of Musa Qala were among those killed. Twenty-two Taliban fighters in all were killed and 14 captured, the defence ministry said. Five Pakistanis and a Bangladeshi national were among those captured.
Bombing, air strikes and ground clashes between US-backed government forces and militants have flared anew since the US-Taliban negotiations fell apart, and ahead of a presidential election next week.
In the drone strike on Sept 18 in the eastern province of Nangarhar, six local government officials were killed in addition to the 32 pine nut harvesters, 40 of whom were injured. Malik Khyali, 62, a resident of Khogyani district in Nangarhar, said he lost a son in the drone strike and would not forgive those who carried it out as he knew of no militants hiding among laborers in the thickly wooded area.
Last week President Ashraf Ghani promised measures to reduce civilian casualties. On Monday he tweeted a call for “extra caution” in military operations, and ordered investigations.