Afghan Opposition Warns U.S. Over Civilian Deaths

05/05/2001| IslamWeb

KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Afghanistan's opposition urged the United States and its allies Wednesday to work harder to prevent civilian casualties in its military campaign against the ruling Taliban.Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition's foreign minister, said bombing raids against Taliban positions had inflicted more pain on a people who had already suffered under the rule of ''terrorists.''
``I think more attention has to be paid to avoid casualties in the aftermath (of bombing raids),'' he told a news conference.
Abdullah, on his way to meet commanders in the northeastern town of Khoja Bahawuddin, said the opposition Northern Alliance had received confirmed accounts of civilian casualties during the bombing raids.
He said many Afghans had been killed or wounded in the southern city of Kandahar and eastern city of Jalalabad in the strikes, which Washington and its allies launched earlier this month.
While the United States has dismissed the Taliban claims of more than 1,000 civilian deaths, they have confirmed that some bombs have gone astray. (Read photo caption below)
The United Nations said Tuesday a military hospital had been destroyed by bombing in the western city of Herat on Monday but it had no information on casualties. A U.S. defense official said in Washington U.S. forces might have accidentally hit a home for the elderly.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Injured 18-month-old Afghan boy Hameedullah cries as his injured 10-year-old niece Khanam tries to comfort him with her teddy bear at the Al-Khidmat Afghan refugee hospital in Quetta October 24, 2001. According to Hameedullah's uncle, 12 members of his family were killed by U.S. airstrikes at their home in the village of Orzagan, north of the Taliban stronghold Kandahar, including four of Hameedullah's five siblings, while the boy's mother was seriously injured. (Jerry Lampen/Reuters)