Word: uruzgan
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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...
...also prove to have been the U.S.'s most calamitous blunder. According to authorities in Uruzgan and the surrounding area, the Americans killed the wrong guys. The soldiers slaughtered at Sharzam, they say, were not enemy fighters but anti-Taliban troops loyal to U.S.-backed interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. They belonged to a military commission appointed by the new provincial government to oversee the collection of leftover Taliban weapons. "A terrible mistake has been made," said Abdul Ghani, an Uruzgan businessman...
According to eyewitnesses, U.S. commandos moved on Uruzgan shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 24, accompanied by eight helicopters and at least two armored humvees. Local Afghans said that when the Americans burst into the school, they found Afghan fighters sleeping and began spraying the beds with gunfire. A guard named Hamdullah, who evaded the attack by hiding in a ditch, told TIME he heard men inside the school plead, "For the love of Allah, do not kill us. We surrender." According to villagers, the Americans shot most of their victims at close range. After two hours, the commandos choppered...
...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...