U.S. disputes U.N. claim air strikes killed civilians

KABUL — At least 30 civilians were killed by U.S. air strikes that targeted drug labs in western Afghanistan this spring, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday, a figure that the U.S.led mission in the country quickly disputed.

The strikes, on May 5, targeted more than 60 sites in Farah province and neighboring Nimruz province, the U.N. report said. As of last month, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had verified that 39 civilians were either wounded or killed in the strikes. Seventeen of those were working in the drug labs, which were primarily producing methamphetamine.

A statement from the U.S.led mission in Afghanistan disagreed with nearly all of the report, citing its “reliance on sources with conflicted motives” and the decision to call those killed in the bombings civilians instead of insurgents.

The dispute sheds light on America’s current war methods — relying heavily on overhead surveillance, air support and local forces to select and attack targets — and the sometimes contentious definitions by which the U.S. military identifies combatants on an increasingly murky battlefield.

In the case of the May 5 strikes, the U.S. military said in its statement that its own “exhaustive and comprehensive review” had determined that the labs were producing revenue for the Taliban, and that the people working in them were Taliban fighters and “lawful military targets.”

It said the timing of the strikes was chosen to avoid civilian casualties, but the U.N. report disputed this. Its report said that one of the targeted sets of facilities, in the Bakwa district of Farah province, “were not controlled and operated exclusively by the Taliban, but rather they were owned and operated by criminal groups with connections to international drug trafficking networks.”

These differing assessments are at the core of the dueling findings. While the U.S. military sees economic engines that contribute to the Taliban’s war effort as legally legitimate targets, the U.N. considered the sites hit on May 5 strikes to be outside that categorization.

The people inside the labs were not “performing combat functions,” the U.N. report said, and “while some of the sites may have been associated with illicit activity, they did not meet the definition of legitimate military objectives under international law.”

An American defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said revenue from the targeted drug labs was directly funding a branch of the insurgent group that is responsible for some of its more deadly attacks.