The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Us-backed air strikes kill at least 40 people at Helmand wedding
Anti-taliban raids by Afghan forces backed by US air strikes have killed at least 40 civilians at a wedding in Helmand province, officials said.
The civilian deaths in Sunday night’s raids on Taliban hideouts further rattled Afghanistan amid an upsurge in violence after the collapse this month of Us-taliban peace talks to end America’s longest war.
Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said: “We are saddened... to hear that civilians have lost their lives in an incident in Helmand despite President Ghani’s repeated call for extra cautions in conducting military operations.”
Abdul Majed Akhund, deputy provincial councillor, said most of the dead were women and children who were at a wedding ceremony in Musa Qala district.
Another 12 civilians were taken to hospital in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province. The civilian deaths occurred during the second of two raids in different areas of Musa Qala, said Attahullah Afghan, head of the provincial council.
The operations killed 22 Taliban fighters, including foreigners, Afghanistan’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Fourteen people were arrested, including five Pakistani nationals and one Bangladeshi.
The statement said a large warehouse of supplies and equipment was also destroyed.
“The foreign terrorist group was actively engaged in organising terrorist attacks,” the statement said.
The raids came after a drone attack last week in Nangarhar province – blamed on US forces – killed at least 16 and wounded tens of others, most of them civilians.
US forces said that attack was targeting Islamic State militants.
Also, in an insider attack at Kandahar airport yesterday, a policeman turned his weapon on a Nato Resolute Support convoy, according to a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.
Resolute Support forces returned fire, killing the attacker, the statement from Colonel Sonny Leggett said. Three Resolute Support service members suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said.