From: matus [matus@snet.net] Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 9:17 PM To: matus@snet.net Subject: MFD List - U.S. criticized for cluster bomb use U.S. criticized for cluster bomb use ---------- Dallas Morning News U.S. officials face international criticism after American aircraft struck an Afghan village with a cluster bomb, killing eight people and scattering deadly unexploded "bomblets" through village streets. Cluster bombs are controversial and the target of a campaign to ban their use. (10/25/01) http://www.free-market.net/rd/144503719.html U.S. criticized for cluster bomb use Pentagon says civilians not targeted; allies, rebels step up attacks 10/25/2001 By GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - U.S. aircraft struck an Afghan village with a cluster bomb, killing eight people and scattering deadly unexploded "bomblets" through village streets, U.N. officials said Wednesday. "Many, many casualties" from the village of Shaker Qala and a nearby military compound were taken by vehicles and pushcarts to the main hospital in the city of Herat, less than two miles away, said Richard Daniel Kelly, manager for the U.N. Mine Action Program for Afghanistan. Mr. Kelly's Afghan staff in Herat reported the use of the bomb, which many countries and nongovernment organizations are trying to ban. The Pentagon stressed that civilians were not being targeted. On Wednesday night, a report on Iranian state television said that American and British planes carrying out another bombing raid on Herat, at about the time of the day's early evening prayers, had killed at least 20 civilians near a mosque. No confirmation of the two strikes, the one involving the cluster bomb and the one near the mosque, was immediately available from the Pentagon, which has acknowledged several accidental strikes on civilian targets. At the Pentagon on Wednesday, Army Maj. James Cassella, addressing the cluster bomb report, said, "We take great care to target only military targets, to avoid inflicting civilian casualties. "When that happens, we certainly regret that. But for that specific incident, I don't have any information yet." The use of cluster bombs comes amid reports that the U.S. air attacks on Afghanistan are inflicting a rising number of civilian casualties. The reports are fueling protests around the Islamic world and undermining the government of Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led campaign, analysts said. The Pentagon has dismissed claims of significant civilian casualties as propaganda by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, which U.S. forces are trying to topple. There is growing evidence that the Taliban is trying to use civilians as shields or even inviting civilian casualties. Refugees fleeing Taliban-controlled areas have said the the regime is moving troops and tanks into residential areas of Kabul, the capital. There is also information that Taliban forces are occupying "residences and offices" in Kandahar, the spiritual and political base of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, said U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker. Shaker Qala is less than a mile from the military compound in Herat where a U.S. bomb destroyed a military hospital, U.N. officials said. There are no precise figures on the number of casualties from the attacks, the officials said. The Pentagon has acknowledged that it mistakenly damaged what U.S. officials described as a home for the elderly. The United Nations has asked the United States to provide information on the cluster bombs used at Shaker Qala so the unexploded bomblets can be disarmed, U.N. officials said. The incident came to light after villagers sought help from the U.N. Mine Action Center on Tuesday morning, hours after the bomblets fell, U.N. officials said. "They told the Mine Action Center that many bomblets were littering their village and that they were afraid and could not leave their homes," Ms. Bunker said. The U.N. mine program staff went to the village to look at the bomblets and described their appearance to U.N. officials in Islamabad during a Wednesday radio conversation, U.N. officials said. U.S. aircraft continued to hit front-line Taliban troop positions north of Kabul with punishing strikes Wednesday. The airstrikes, the heaviest in four days of attacks there, are part of a strategy aimed at making the Taliban vulnerable to ground attacks by rebel Northern Alliance troops. Taliban gunners fired missiles Wednesday at U.S. jets pounding the front lines, and opposition commanders said they were bringing up fresh troops for a possible assault on the capital. A Pakistani militant group said Wednesday that 22 of its fighters were killed in a U.S. attack on Kabul - the deadliest known strike against a group linked to Osama bin Laden since the air campaign began. Mr. bin Laden is the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. A group was seen bringing the bodies of 11 of the Pakistani militants to the Torkham border crossing Wednesday between Afghanistan and Pakistan, hoping to bury them in their homeland. The Pakistani border guards refused to let them cross, said a Taliban security chief, Noor Mohammed Hanifi. "They said, 'You wanted to fight with the Taliban, then you can bury your dead in Afghanistan,' " Mr. Hanifi said. In neighboring Pakistan, border guards reported five powerful explosions Wednesday near a region in Afghanistan's Paktia province where Mr. bin Laden is thought to run a tunnel complex. The concussions near the Gor Way Tangi area were so powerful that Pakistani officials said they believed 5,000-pound bombs were being used to collapse mountainsides and close tunnel entrances. Amid the roar of jets and the crackle of gunfire north of Kabul, opposition commander Haji Bari told The Associated Press that the Northern Alliance was bringing in thousands of new troops and weapons in anticipation of a green light from alliance leaders to march on the capital. "We're waiting for the order," said Mr. Bari, deputy brigade commander in the Rabat district. The Northern Alliance added its voice to the growing calls for U.S. forces to make greater efforts to avoid civilian casualties. "A major concern is that of civilian casualties ... which have to be avoided by any means," said Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, speaking at a news conference. The Afghan people "have suffered for so long under the rule of terrorist groups ... and now they are suffering in a different way." The use of cluster bombs by U.S. forces in Afghanistan appears to be part of the shift in the air campaign to emphasize strikes on front-line Taliban troops and equipment, said Mr. Kelly, the U.N. official. Cluster bombs are designed to kill people and destroy vehicles over a large area by unleashing scores of bomblets. The weapons have been used by U.S. military forces - and other armies - since the Vietnam War. But since the use of cluster bombs by U.S. forces in the Yugoslav territory of Kosovo, an international campaign to ban land mines has sought to have cluster bombs banned because of the high number of civilian casualties they can cause, U.N. officials said. "The villagers have a lot to be afraid of" because the bomblets could explode if villagers "so much as even touch them," Mr. Kelly said. U.N. officials said Wednesday that about 70 percent of the population of Herat has fled the city for surrounding villages since the 18-day-old U.S. bombing campaign began. President Bush ordered the military action after the Taliban refused to surrender Mr. bin Laden. The New York Times and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/attack_on_america/response/stories/STORY.e9c1bf07a 5.b0.af.0.a4.abee1.html © 2001 DallasNews.com www.matus1976.com