Islamabad | Friday
HEAVY US bombing of Kabul on Friday left two young girls dead in a village near the city’s airport and destroyed two Red Cross warehouses.
Taliban officials claim over 1 000 civilians have died since US airstrikes began on October 7 but only a handful have been confirmed independently.
Following is a list of incidents where there is evidence from witnesses or non-Taliban sources of non-military targets being hit by US bombs:
October 26
Two sisters, aged six and 11, are killed when their mud-brick family home in the village of Wazir Abad, three kilometres west of Kabul airport, was flattened by a US bomb. A Kabul hospital said a man was also killed when a bomb hit a communications centre in the east of the city. US bombs destroy two Red Cross warehouses, wiping out stocks of food and cooking oil intended for widows and disabled people, Red Cross officials said.
October 23
At least 52 civilians killed in the bombing of Chakoor Kariz village, near Kandahar, according to Taliban officials. The Arabic news station Al Jazeera put the death toll at over 90 and broadcast film of what it said were victims of the attack in hospital in Kandahar. The Taliban claims the village was mistaken for a terrorist training camp, as others have been.
October 22
Nine people died in the village of Shakar Qala near Herat after US warplanes dropped a cluster bomb on it, the UN said. Eight died instantly and a ninth was killed after picking up one of the bombs, according to a UN demining team which visited the village after the attack.
October 22
A US bomb struck a military hospital in a military compound in Herat, western Afghanistan, according to the UN. The US acknowledged a bomb went astray over the city and landed near an old people’s home. The Taliban claims a 100-bed civilian hospital in the city was destroyed by bombing, as well as the military clinic.
October 21
At least 20 civilians, including nine children, killed when the tractor and trailer on which they were fleeing US attacks on the southern town of Tirin Kot was bombed, according to survivors of the attack now hospitalised in Pakistan. The Taliban reported two similar incidents near Kandahar and Jalalabad, both on October 17.
October 21
A stray US bomb lands on the neighbourhood of Parod Gajaded in the Khair Khana district of northeastern Kabul, killing ten people, nine of them from the same extended family, witnesses told a reporter who visited the scene shortly after the bombing.
October 18
Five members of the same family are killed when six houses are destroyed by US bombs in the Kalae Zaman Khan area of Kabul, witnesses and relatives told AFP at the scene. An eight year old girl was killed in the eastern suburb of Macroyan. Other residential areas were struck the same day but casualties could not be confirmed.
October 16
US bombs hit warehouses of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, destroying supplies and injuring at least one worker. The compound had a large red cross on the roof. After a Red Cross protest, the US admitted dropping a 1 000 pound bomb close to the warehouse, saying Taliban vehicles were in the area. A World Food Programme warehouse in Kabul has also been damaged in raids.
October 13
A US bomb missed a target at Kabul airport and struck a nearby village, killing at least four people, according to witnesses. The Pentagon confirmed the bomb had gone off course due to technical error.
October 11
At least 160 people reported killed in Kadam, a mountain village near Jalalabad. A reporter who visited the remote village saw dozens of collapsed houses, one unexploded bomb and more than 18 fresh graves. But the numbers of dead could not be confirmed. The US said it had attacked caves in the area which were packed with ammunition.
October 11
Residents of a village near Kabul airport said a 12-year-old girl died when a bomb landed near her house, causing it to collapse.
October 9
Office of a UN-backed demining agency in Kabul is bombed, killing four security guards. US expressed regret following UN protest.
October 7-26
Since the start of the campaign US attacks have targeted power plants, telecommunications facilities and broadcasting infrastructure. Power in Kabul has been intermittently cut. Kandahar has been without power or water since the start of the second week of bombing. Kabul’s telephone exchange has been badly damaged and the Taliban’s Radio Shariat has been forced off air. – Sapa-AFP
FEATURES:
Shattered World: A Daily Mail & Guardian special on the attack on the US
OFF-SITE:
Guardian’s Interactive Guide to how a attack involving ground troops may start
The Guardian’s special report on the attacks