HaMiD KaRzAi DeMaNdS US HaNd OvEr GuNmEn WhO KilLeD ChIlDrEn - ThE DeAtH oF HuMaNiTy

Saturday, January 9, 2010 - By Jerome Starkey in Kabul

President Karzai’s security chiefs have demanded that America should hand over the gunmen behind a night raid in eastern Afghanistan that government investigators and the United Nations say killed at least eight schoolchildren.

It was the Afghan Government’s most aggressive response yet to an alleged attack on civilians. But the US insisted that its men had come under fire and that all the victims were part of an Afghan cell manufacturing bombs.

The call heightens a war of words between the Afghan Government and its powerful military backers. It is the first time that Mr Karzai has tried to hold foreign forces directly accountable for killing civilians, although he has issued impassioned responses to civilian casualties that threaten to undermine Nato’s mission in Afghanistan.

It also reflects the growing assertiveness of a Government that precariously held its position after fraudriddled elections in August and open criticism from Nato countries over corruption.

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Kai Eide, the head of the UN in Afghanistan, issued a statement reinforcing Afghan claims that most of the dead were schoolboys. “Based on our initial investigation, eight of those killed were students enrolled in local schools,” he said.

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The National Security Council, chaired by Mr Karzai, accepted the findings of an Afghan investigation that contradicted Nato’s claims. It demanded: “Those responsible for the deaths of those innocent youths must be handed over to the Afghan Government”.

Conventional US units told investigators that they had no knowledge of the operation, in Narang district in eastern Kunar province. Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US troops flew to Kunar from Kabul late on Saturday. Nato sources said that the foreigners involved were non-military, suggesting that they were part of a secret paramilitary unit based in the capital.

Mr Wafa said that they landed helicopters outside the village and walked in at the dead of night before shooting the children at close range. “They were children, they were civilians, they were innocent,” he said. “I condemn this attack.”

The Security Council endorsed his findings. “International forces entered the area and killed ten youths, eight of them school students inside two rooms in a house, without encountering any armed resistance,” a statement from Mr Karzai’s office said.

The National Security Council, chaired by Mr Karzai, accepted the findings of an Afghan investigation that contradicted Nato’s claims. It demanded: “Those responsible for the deaths of those innocent youths must be handed over to the Afghan Government”.

Conventional US units told investigators that they had no knowledge of the operation, in Narang district in eastern Kunar province. Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US troops flew to Kunar from Kabul late on Saturday. Nato sources said that the foreigners involved were non-military, suggesting that they were part of a secret paramilitary unit based in the capital.

===snipped===>"And Ye Shall Know The Truth and The Truth Will Set You Free"

WAKE UP AMERICA.....IT(s) OUR COUNTRY!!!

Love "Light" and Energy

_Don

References:

[LA County Nonpartisan Examiner]

[UN slams US over killing of Afghan civilians]

[The World's Worst Terrorists Based In Washington]

[Karzai demands U.S. forces turn over Afghan killing suspects]

[Afghan govt. demands arrest of US "death squad" who handcuffed, executed 8 children. US refuses]