Helmand Bomb Deaths Could Boost Taleban

Thursday, 19 August, 2010

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Mohammad Ilyas Dayee

IWPR-trained journalist

Mohammmad Khan clutches his head and screams at the sky as he recalls the events in which 13 members of his family lost their lives.

The 40-year-old said that the sun had been setting over the village of Rigi in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on July 23 when he saw planes flying overhead.

He called out to his mother to save herself and his children, fearing they would be caught by a deadly air attack.

But it was too late – their compound was destroyed and he and his sister were the only family members to survive.

“I didn’t know where my mother had taken refuge,” Mohammad Khan said. “I had no idea where she was; she was caught up in the fire.”

“How was she at fault?” he asked, as other residents of the village in Sangin district wept around him.

Locals claim that 52 people were killed that day, a figure backed up by President Hamid Karzai, who said that an Afghan investigation had revealed the deaths were caused by an air-to-ground missile fired by a NATO plane.

This allegation was denied by the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, the International Assistance Security Force or ISAF, which said that missiles were used in an armed engagement, but this happened ten kilometers away from Rigi. Six insurgents died in the clash, in which missiles were fired in response to Taleban gunfire, and none of the weapons strayed, an ISAF statement said.

While what happened in Rigi remain disputed, what is beyond doubt is many people believe it could prove a powerful recruiting tool for the Taleban.

“First of all, I will leave it to [President Hamid] Karzai to bring the culprits to justice, but if he doesn’t do anything about it, I myself will wreak revenge on these infidels,” said Mohammad Khan. “I was already aware of the intentions of these infidels and we have had experience of them – any time the Taleban put pressure on them, they bombard civilians.”

Other residents of Rigi, too, say they are ready to take up arms against the Afghan government and the international forces.

“My wife and five children are lying in their graves. I have no more to lose – now I will join the Taleban,” said Rahmatullah Khan, his body twisting in pain as he clenched a corner of his turban between his teeth. “If they are spotting people with binoculars, then they should have shot me, because I dress like the Taleban. But what about my wife – she wasn’t dressed like the Taleban. Why was she killed?”

People in the villagers, many of whom had already been displaced from homes located between Sangin district and Sarwan Kala to escape clashes between ISAF troops and the Taleban, described scenes of panic and confusion as people searched for loved ones.

Khangul Kaka, an elderly man holding a child in his lap, wept as he described the boy’s close escape from death.

“His parents are under the debris,” he said. “We dragged him out of the fire, and now he is crying for his mother. We don’t know who we should hand him over to.”

Haji Rahim, whose house was destroyed, leaving him the sole survivor, said, “My wife was pregnant and three of my children are dead under the ruin and rubble. I wish I had been killed as well.”

BBC journalist Aziz Ahmad Shafe, who visited Rigi, says the victims came from five families, with 17 of the dead belonging to one household.

The head of the health department in neighbouring Kandahar province, Dr Abdul Qayum, said seven injured children had been brought to the Mirwais Hospital from Sangin district.

The issue of civilian casualties incurred in anti-insurgency operations has long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and the international forces, as well as of huge resentment from the local population.

Journalist and defence expert Abdul Tawab Qureshi said the incident in Rigi, combined with a change in the command of the international forces, had raised many questions in the public’s mind.

At the end of June, General David Petraeus took over as commander of US forces in the country following the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal. Petraeus has softened some of the restrictions on the rules of engagement – including those for calling in air strikes – which had been imposed by McChrystal in an attempt to reduce civilian casualties.

Qureshi said that Petraeus clearly favoured the use of aerial bombardments which had been banned by his predecessor, adding that the incident in Rigi proved that McChrystal’s judgement had been right.

Such civilian deaths will shift public opinion and reduce the level of trust among local people, thus dealing a blow to the US forces deployed in Helmand, he argued.

“People have confidence in the American troops, compared with other troops in Helmand, because they are spending money and also bringing security,” Qureshi said. “But such incidents in which civilians are killed will have a profound effect on their views and reduce them [US troops] to the same level as the British.”

Ramazan, a doctor from Lashkar Gah, the administrative centre of Helmand province, said that such incidents were likely to “inflame the talk of jihad [holy war] so famously employed by the Taleban. This is now giving them the perfect opportunity to recruit among these people.”

“I don’t think the government is going to be able to satisfy those who’ve lost everything in this incident,” he continued. “They are unhappy that the government is ignoring them, and they will now take up arms.”

Shamsullah Sahrai, a candidate from Sangin running in the September parliamentary election, said he had been planning to campaign in the district but had now been warned not to travel there.

“This incident has made the people of Helmand angry with the government and the international forces, and they will remain angry until those responsible for this incident are brought to justice and punished,” he said. “We are fed up of this kind of friendship and assistance.”

Mohammad Rafi, a Sangin resident and a former army officer, predicted that the Rigi incident and other similar cases would have a huge impact on the Americans and their allies.

Civilian casualties are one of the major factors that will strengthen the Taleban, he argued.

“In the current situation, one civilian death paves the way for the killing of five American soldiers,” he said.

Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR reporter in Helmand.