|
Afghan
Weapons Depot Death Toll Mounts,
U.S.
Pilots Blamed for 'Friendly Fire'
 |
| Canadian
Maurice Baril, center, head of the Canadian inquiry into the
friendly fire incident in
Afghanistan
. |
KABUL, June 29 (IslamOnline & news Agencies) - A pre-dawn explosion
shook the outskirts of the capital Kabul
early Saturday. Rescuers, meanwhile, pulled more wounded people from
the rubble of a destroyed weapons depot in the southern Afghan border
town of
Spin Boldak
. The depot explosions killed dozens of people and wounded up to 70
more, news agencies reported.
No
one was killed or injured in the
Kabul
blast, according to the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF), reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"At
4:30
this morning (2400 GMT Friday) there was an explosion three kilometers
(two miles) from the airport." Captain Yasar Okan told AFP.
"There were no casualties."
The
nature of the blast was unclear, Okan said. It occurred in a field
outside the city, he added.
Meanwhile,
the final death toll from a chain of blasts that tore through the
depot from
midnight
Thursday and into the early hours of Friday remained unclear, with one
UN official citing Spin Boldak authorities as saying 32 people were
killed and 70 wounded.
An
Afghan Embassy official in the Pakistani capital
Islamabad
, Abdul Jabbar Naeemi, told AFP that he had unconfirmed reports of up
to 30 deaths, and more than 60 injured.
The
cause of the explosions at the massive arms and munitions stockpile,
belonging to the forces of Gul Agha, a warlord and governor of the
main southern
province
of
Kandahar, had yet to be determined.
The
explosions demolished the depot, a customs warehouse nearby, several
UN relief agency offices, and damaged dozens of homes and government
offices.
UN
spokesman Khaled Mansour said the warehouse received food from
Pakistan
, then distributed to 60,000 displaced people in southern
Afghanistan
.
"It
seems most of the food is intact, but two huge storage tents and three
containers used as offices were destroyed," he said.
Pakistani
relief workers were helping to evacuate the wounded over the border
into Chaman, eight kilometers (4.8 miles) away.
"We
have removed five dead bodies and 37 injured since we started our
operation early Friday," Mohammad Hanif from the Edhi Welfare
Trust,
Pakistan
's largest aid organization, told AFP by phone from Chaman.
Afghan
authorities, who sealed off the area around the destroyed depot were
bringing the injured to relief workers half a mile from the blast
site, Hanif said.
The
eruptions scattered weapons and ordnance over a one kilometer radius,
witnesses returning from Spin Boldak said Friday.
Munitions
were still exploding Saturday, hampering the already stretched rescue
and clean-up operations, Naeemi said.
"The
explosions have not stopped. This place was full of ammunition,"
he said.
"The
Afghan government does not have the equipment or facilities to control
the blasts and remove the rubble rapidly.
"There
is still a lot of ammunition and minor explosions are still going on.
The official in charge of the city, Syed Fazluddin Agha, is doing
whatever he can to remove the rubble and locate the injured."
According
to BBC’s online news service, a local commander said the explosion
was sparked by a rocket attack of unknown origin.
Fazaludin
Agha said it was not known who fired the rocket that set off the
initial explosion, or from where.
However,
Afghan officials in
Pakistan
say the explosion appears to have been an accident.
In
another development, a joint U.S.-Canadian inquiry blamed two U.S.
F-16 fighter pilots for killing four Canadian soldiers in a so-called
"friendly fire" incident in
Afghanistan
.
 |
| Funeral of the
four Canadian soldiers killed by
U.S.
friendly fire in
Afghanistan
. |
U.S.
Marine Corps Lieutenant-General Michael DeLong, deputy commander of
U.S. Central Command, told a news conference in
Florida
that the pilots failed to exercise appropriate flight discipline.
DeLong
said the Air Force will consider taking disciplinary action against
the men.
A
separate Canadian inquiry into the incident reached the same
conclusion.
"None
of the deceased, injured or other members of the (Canadian forces) who
planned, coordinated or participated in the subject live-fire exercise
at the
Tarnak
Farm
Range
can be blamed in any way for the injuries or deaths that
occurred," said the Canadian report.
It
also blamed the incident - one of the worst friendly fire mishaps of
the Afghan campaign - on the two
U.S.
pilots.
"It
is the conclusion of the board that the pilot's actions were not
consistent with the expected practice for a defensive threat reaction
or the existing published procedures. This represented a failure of
airmanship and technique," the board said.
The
mistaken attack was the worst case of friendly fire of the nine-month
war in
Afghanistan
.
The
Canadian troops were on a night-time training exercise near the
southern Afghan city of
Kandahar
when they came under attack by the F-16s.
The
two fighter planes were returning from a mission over
Afghanistan
when they saw what they believed to be enemy fire.
DeLong
said the lead pilot reported hostile activity and the second pilot
requested permission to fire.
He
was told by American air controllers to wait for verification, but the
pilot decided to act in self-defense and dropped a 500-pound (227 kg)
laser-guided bomb onto his target, killing the Canadian soldiers.
DeLong
called the incident “this amounted to inappropriate use of lethal
force".
He
said failings in the pilots' "immediate command structure"
also contributed to the accident.
However,
according to the separate Canadian inquiry, Canadian troops notified
American military officials that they would be conducting live-fire
exercises that night.
Retired
Canadian general Maurice Maril, who led the investigation, said the
pilots' actions "represented a failure of airmanship and
technique for the wingman and a failure of leadership for the flight
leader".
Canadian
Defense Minister John McCallum said the pilots "contravened
established procedures and were the direct cause of the
incident".
The
incident caused outrage in
Canada
. It was the first time Canadian troops had been killed in a combat
zone since the Korean War in the early 1950s.
Earlier
this month, a
U.S.
military investigation recommended the pilots, identified as Major
Harry Schmidt and Major William Umbach, face a hearing that could lead
to criminal charges against them.
DeLong's
statement left many unanswered questions about the incident, including
the key question of whether the pilots were briefed that the Canadians
were engaged in a live-fire exercise at a well known training area
south of Kandahar.
|
