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Pentagon Defends CIA Missile Strike in Eastern Afghanistan
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U.S. officials say targets were Al Qaeda members because of the Arab-style attire |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Pentagon's military spokesman on the Afghan war on Monday defended a CIA missile strike last week that killed an unknown number of individuals, saying they "were not innocents” and that "something untoward” was going on at the time of the attack.
"These were not peasant people up there farming,” Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, the deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing.
A report in the Washington Post Monday said the individuals hit in the strike had been peasants collecting scrap metal.
U.S. officials said last week they believed the targets were al-Qaeda members, in part because of their Arab-style dress.
The February 4 Hellfire missile strike was conducted by a CIA-operated Predator drone and an unknown number of people were killed.
"We do not know who were the individuals at the strike site,” Stufflebeem said, adding at another point, “The indications were there, that there was something untoward that we needed to make go away.”
The admiral declined to specify what was occurring, citing concerns about the secrecy of intelligence operations. He said it might take some time to be able to determine who might have been hit in the strike.
Troops who searched the site also recovered documents, including airline schedules and English language credit card applications, as well as what appeared to be communications equipment and small arms and ammunition, said Stufflebeem.
He added that the troops also explored nearby caves and a village and spoke to some locals.
"So, the intelligence that was garnered to be able to facilitate to strike, the initial indications afterwards would seem to say that these are not peasant people up there farming," the admiral said.
Pentagon and U.S. officials have said the missile was directed at a few men who were believed to be al-Qaeda in an area near Zhawar Kili, a former al-Qaeda stronghold near the eastern town of Khost.
The target of the missile was a tall man who was being treated with great deference by the others, an official said last week.
The official said the man was believed to be a senior al-Qaeda official but would not say whether he was also believed to be Osama bin Laden, the elusive al-Qaeda leader suspected by the U.S. government of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Earlier in the day, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said a U.S. team of 50 individuals had found the strike site.
"We're convinced it was an appropriate target - based on the observation, based on the information," she said. "We do not know yet exactly who it was."
Clarke said the team has recovered "small pieces of bone and human flesh,'' as well as some documents, a number of small weapons and some ammunition, Clarke said.
Stufflebeem said pieces of bodies had been found, but that there was some evidence that either humans or animals had been at the scene because of the dislocation of items that had been found. He did not elaborate.
"The materials will be sent back for further analysis,” Clarke said, declining to define what was being examined.
Asked about reports from the scene that those who were killed were peasants gathering scrap metal, Clarke said, "We haven't seen or heard anything that leads us to believe that it was anything other than what we thought the target was.”
On another matter, Clarke said that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has asked for an investigation into allegations that Afghans mistakenly taken prisoner by U.S. military forces in a raid last month were later beaten and mistreated.
Clarke, chief spokeswoman for Rumsfeld, said the military “has nothing to indicate that anything like that happened,” but is looking into it after the release of newspaper reports.
The inquiry is part of an investigation by the U.S. military into the Jan. 23 raid in the village of Kas Uruzgan north of Kandahar, in which 19 people were killed. U.S. commanders acknowledged last week that they mistakenly took 27 prisoners in the raid, believing they were al-Qaeda and Taliban warriors.
The 27 were released last week. Several contended in reports in The New York Times and Washington Post that they were beaten and kept in a cage with wooden bars during their detention in Kandahar.
Questioned about the reports Monday, Clarke said Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the Afghan war, are still looking for answers.
"The investigation is still ongoing. The secretary and General Franks have asked for more information about those allegations,” Clarke said. "We have nothing to indicate anything like that happened. Right now, there's nothing that leads us to believe anything like that happened.”
The Pentagon said Monday it had no evidence that a CIA-launched missile killed innocent civilians in eastern Afghanistan as villagers have claimed, and said it was convinced that the strike was "appropriate."
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