Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Videos spur new review into Afghan deaths

KABUL, Afghanistan — The bodies of several children lay dead in two videos that show the aftermath of a U.S.-led operation the Afghan government and U.N. say killed 90 civilians.

The video, apparently taken by a cell phone, is grainy and details such as a precise body count are difficult to make out. A second video shows gruesome detail of children severely disfigured.

The two videos, both obtained Monday by The Associated Press, give weight to Afghan and U.N. findings that scores of civilians, including 60 children and 15 women, died in the Aug. 22 raid in the village of Azizabad.

A U.S. investigation found that only seven civilians died. But the U.S. on Sunday said it would reopen the investigation because of emerging new evidence.

Even though the U.S. said Sept. 2 that its investigation was complete, the military appeared to leave open the possibility that photographs or video of the scene could emerge. American officials said privately that they were aware photographic evidence apparently existed, but that they did not have access to it.

“No other evidence that may have been collected by other organizations was provided to the U.S. Investigating Officer and therefore could not be considered in the findings,” the initial U.S. report said.

On Sunday, Gen. David McKiernan — the senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan and the commander of the 40-nation NATO-led mission — requested that an American general travel from U.S. Central Command in Florida to Afghanistan to review the U.S. investigation.

That announcement followed a statement attributed to McKiernan that said “we realize there is a large discrepancy between the number of civilians casualties reported” and that McKiernan would continue to “try to account for this disparity.”