Word: uruzgan
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...locals. On Feb. 4, a Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile at a man who U.S. Central Command thought might be bin Laden. Villagers say the dead man was a scrap collector; the Pentagon says he was al-Qaeda. And on Jan. 24, special forces raided a compound in Uruzgan province, killing 16. Locals say the victims were not Taliban or al-Qaeda but supporters of Karzai...
...Although the Afghan government has accepted the U.S. explanation that the Uruzgan incident was a mistake, Western journalists who have visited the scene say the locals are deeply angry with the Americans. Back at the Pentagon, and in the U.S. media, these things are understood as the mistakes that inevitably happen in the fog of war. There's nothing new about "friendly fire" casualties, or "collateral damage." But it's important to remember that these terms are euphemisms designed to make such carnage more palatable to the American side; for the victims of such fatal errors the experience is every...
...post-Taliban Afghanistan, where rival clans have begun to try to use the U.S. military for their own ends. The U.S. military admitted this week that it had killed and captured the wrong people when it struck what it believed to be a Taliban stronghold in the town of Uruzgan three weeks ago. U.S. commanders were forced to apologize and offer financial compensation...
...Uruzgan is certainly a place that could confound an army. The province was a Taliban hotbed that sent hundreds of young men to fight for the regime. Mohammed Younis, the warlord in charge of the military compound raided by the U.S., was friendly with senior Taliban leaders; his son had close ties to Taliban Health Minister Mohammed Abbas Akhund, one of the movement's founders. A Kandahar official told TIME that Akhund and a few other Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding in the mountains outside Uruzgan. While it is possible that U.S. troops simply went to the wrong...
...heard no gunfire from inside the school. Two dead Afghans were found with their wrists bound. One U.S. soldier left behind a note: "Have a nice day. From Damage Inc." Days after the attack, the classrooms at the school were still soaked in thick blood. Surveying the carnage, a Uruzgan elder said, "The U.S. must be punished for what they did in this room." Even mistakes aren't easily forgotten...