|
Us to continue targeted killings despite botch up Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,224631,00.htmlhttp://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,224631,00.html
US to continue targeted killings despite botch-up
It is perfectly logical to hunt down fugitives who are killing civilians and allied troops, says Rumsfeld
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has defended US military attempts to kill insurgent leaders in Afghanistan and Iraq, following a botched American air strike that killed nine children in an Afghan village, and said it will continue with its policy.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, pressed during a Pentagon briefing on why the military continued to attempt 'targeted killings' despite tragic errors, countered that the United States preferred to capture those it was hunting.
'We would be happy to capture them. We would be happy to have them surrender. And if they don't, we would be happy to kill them. And that's what's going on,' he said.
'The implication or the connotation of targeted killing, I think, is unfortunate because it suggests an appetite to do that, which is not the case,' he added.
But he said it was 'perfectly logical' to hunt down and try to capture or kill fugitives in Iraq who are killing Iraqi civilians and allied military forces.
The deaths of the children will likely add to the problems that the United States has faced in winning hearts and minds in the troubled south of Afghanistan, where militants are most active, ahead of elections due next year.
US Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the briefing that it was not clear whether Saturday's air strike that killed the children in Afghanistan had also killed the target, Mullah Wazir.
'It's unclear whether or not he was the one killed in the strike,' Gen Myers said.
'He was the fella we were after. He was connected to the recent killings of two ring road contractors, so we were after him. We think he is also connected to other known terrorists operating in Afghanistan.'
Gen Myers said US Army Brig-Gen Lloyd Austin, the commander of Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan, had visited the village of Makur where the children were killed by gunfire when a US A-10 aircraft launched its attack.
'He has been to the village...We are talking to the village leaders. We have provided various things to the villagers to try and help with their grief. Nothing can do that, of course, when you lose nine children.'
Last month, six civilians were killed in an air strike in the southern province of Paktika, and nearly three weeks before that, eight members of the same family, including children, died in a similar attack in the province of Nuristan.
In July last year, the Afghan government said 48 people had been killed and 117 hurt in Uruzgan province when a US AC-130 gunship attacked a wedding party.
The US military said 34 died and 50 were hurt - mostly women and children - but said the aircraft had come under fire.
Gen Myers conceded that there were risks when the military went after any specific target and the results were sometimes imperfect.
'I can tell you that the kind of vetting that the process goes through - from the beginnings of intelligence to the final operation - is exquisite. And we're not going to be perfect. And we found that out in Afghanistan,' he said.
'But I would offer that both in Afghanistan and Iraq, the amount of force brought to bear and the success that we've had have never been done with more care about bringing innocents into the line of fire. And that will continue.' -- Reuters
|
|
