KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO said Tuesday it was investigating the deaths of five civilians who were killed when coalition forces returned fire against insurgents shooting from a compound in the Sangin district of Helmand.The dead civilians were found after the exchange of fire, a NATOannouncement said. It did not say when the battle took place. NATO said the insurgents were using a civilian home to attack coalition forces.
According to NATO, the insurgents attacked its troops with assault rifles and a machine gun from the compound, and the soldiers returned fire and used mortars.
"This is a tragedy. We are aware that insurgents purposefully stage attacks against friendly forces using innocent civilians' homes," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Patrick Hynes, director of the Combined Joint Operations Center.
The weasel words remain the same (no timings for the alleged attack, no details other than the civilian casualties, blame the Taliban for a Nato mortar attack on a village ('precision weapons', anyone?)
They are rebranding warfare.
ReplyDeleteAll of Afghanistan is a "compound" now.
All Afghans can be labeled "insurgents".
All civilian murders and casualties are called "collateral damage".
Military strategy is now "conditions on the ground".
The end of the beginning is the beginning of the end.
War is peace-just as peace is war now.
Like the French in Algeria as you recently highlighted, RZ, Nato's violence against civilians is the signature of their defeat.
ReplyDelete