Word: uruzgan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first the U.S. military was quite proud of what it had done in this tiny hamlet tucked among orchards and snowcapped ridges north of Kandahar. In what appeared to be a perfect sneak attack, U.S. special-operations soldiers on Jan. 24 stormed Sharzam High School in Uruzgan. That same night, another unit conducted a similar commando raid at a military compound a mile away. In all, the soldiers killed 21 Afghans, who the U.S. claimed were Taliban, captured an additional 27 and destroyed troves of weapons and ammunition. All that, and only one U.S. soldier was hurt--and just barely...
...Ahmadullah was close to Taliban Health Minister Mohammed Abbas Akhund, a founding member of the movement who hailed from Uruzgan province. A former mayor of Kandahar and later Attorney General, Abbas commanded the Taliban's Baghlan force. Now, says the secretary to Kandahar's new pro-American governor, Abbas is hiding with his military force about 5 miles from Uruzgan village. And at least three other top Taliban are reputed to be sheltering in mountains near the site of the U.S. attacks...
...raid on Uruzgan appears, ironically, to have helped Younis. A rogue warlord with strong links to the Taliban and opponent of the new government in Kabul, he saw his local opposition wiped out by U.S. forces - and appears to have inherited the most formidable arsenal in the district, to boot. Says Bari Gul, brother of one of the pro-government commanders slain in the raid, "All the weapons (collected at the school) have been taken by the commander who was ruling by force...
...Pentagon investigation into the incident continues, although Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on Monday conceded that the U.S. may well have killed our wounded friendly fighters in the Uruzgan raid. Part of the problem may be the conflicting signals emanating from the complex power struggles between rival factions on the ground. "I blame Afghans for that myself," says Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of the acting president. "It was an Afghan mistake. It shouldn't happen in the future." Karzai adds he has been "assured" there will not be a repeat, but delicately refuses to say who gave him this comfort...
...clinical ruthlessness of the attack on Uruzgan has left a bitter taste among the locals. "None of our friends fired on the Americans because they were all asleep," says Bari Gul. One Uruzgan elder told TIME, "The U.S. must be punished for what they did in this room, what they did in this place". The bloody events at Uruzgan village may prove to be a tragic mistake, but they may also reverberate more widely in southern Afghanistan. Even guards and translators accompanying TIME's reporter in the village walked away muttering anti-American sentiments...