Saying it received information from a “reliable source,” NATO said insurgents may be planning to falsely claim that international military forces killed up to 70 civilians in southern Afghanistan.
NATO said in a statement late on Sunday that its forces had helped “a number” of injured civilians who approached its forces in the Sangin district of Helmand Province earlier in the day. Soldiers provided medical treatment and helped take them to medical facilities around Helmand and Kandahar.
“The cause of their injuries is unknown at this time. Further details will be released in due course,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in the statement. It did not say whether the injuries were caused by weapons.
Hours later, NATO released another statement saying “a reliable source” had told it insurgents planned to falsely claim that troops had killed up to 70 civilians in the same area.
“ISAF has had no reports that would substantiate a claim such as this. There have been no reports other than of those injured, the cause of which remains unknown at this time,” NATO said.
The NATO warning over a possible civilian casualty claim came hours after the separate US-led coalition command said its troops killed over 220 insurgents in a weeklong fighting in the same province. The coalition did not say where the militants were killed in the province.
Meanwhile, a raid by foreign and Afghan forces in Kabul early yesterday killed a man and his two children, witnesses said.
The raid in the eastern outskirts of the Afghan capital was conducted by US troops backed by Afghan intelligence agents, said police officer Qubaidullah.
He said the raid killed a man named Nurullah and two of his children and wounded his wife.
Hours later, hundreds of protesters blocked a road in Kabul accusing US-led troops of killing the three family members of a family, residents and witnesses said.
“It was past one o’clock when the troops came and surrounded our houses,” said Sulaiman, a resident. “They threw hand grenades on one house and killed three family members.”
Nurullah’s wife was wounded, he said.
“Are these children al-Qaeda?” an angry resident asked as the bodies were taken for burial. “We don’t expect anything from the government because we don’t have a government,” Sulaiman said.
In related news, British actor Jude Law was visiting Afghanistan to promote peace.
Together with director Jeremy Gilley, the Oscar-nominated Law returned to Afghanistan to help maintain momentum for Peace Day — an annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence on Sept. 21.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS