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HRW Calls for Independent Probe Into Pak Missile Attack
ISLAMABAD, 21 June 2007 — The US-based Human Rights Watch called on Pakistani authorities yesterday to allow an independent investigation into a suspected missile strike that killed at least 32 alleged Al-Qaeda militants.
Opposition MPs from religious parties walked out of Parliament after the attack on a madrasa in the North Waziristan tribal area, blaming it on NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan and saying the dead were students.
A senior intelligence official and residents said three missiles fired from Afghanistan hit the building. But the army said the blast was caused by explosives at the site, which it said was being used as a training camp.
“The Pakistani government should immediately allow independent investigators and journalists access.... to ascertain exactly who and how many have died, at whose hands and under what circumstances,” Human Rights Watch South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said in a statement. “Once again, there are allegations of a US strike and of children dying in that strike. Once again, Pakistan is denying US involvement or Pakistani responsibility for the attack,” Hasan said.
He asked the government to allow international investigators to visit the site of the incident.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told AFP that 30 militants were killed, up to half of whom were foreign nationals including Arab and Turkmen insurgents.
He said neither Pakistani nor US forces had anything to do with the attack.
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan also denied any involvement.
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http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=97756&d=21&m=6&y=2007
A senior intelligence official and residents said three missiles fired from Afghanistan hit the building. But the army said the blast was caused by explosives at the site, which it said was being used as a training camp.
“The Pakistani government should immediately allow independent investigators and journalists access.... to ascertain exactly who and how many have died, at whose hands and under what circumstances,” Human Rights Watch South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said in a statement. “Once again, there are allegations of a US strike and of children dying in that strike. Once again, Pakistan is denying US involvement or Pakistani responsibility for the attack,” Hasan said.
He asked the government to allow international investigators to visit the site of the incident.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad told AFP that 30 militants were killed, up to half of whom were foreign nationals including Arab and Turkmen insurgents.
He said neither Pakistani nor US forces had anything to do with the attack.
The US-led coalition in Afghanistan also denied any involvement.
More
http://arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=97756&d=21&m=6&y=2007
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Afghanistan is not Iraq. However certain elements in the violence there are beginning to bear a disturbing similarity to the tragedy in Iraq. One is the rising civilian death toll from NATO airstrikes, most of them delivered by US aircraft. The latest example is the death of schoolchildren in a suspected Al-Qaeda compound. NATO commanders, who say they are investigating what happened, have already asserted that the suspected terrorists refused to let the children leave the building when an airstrike appeared imminent.
This is simply not good enough. If NATO had intelligence on the location of the terrorists, then they surely knew of the presence of innocent Afghan children. They could have rescheduled the assault to a time when the suspects had left the compound and the children were not with them.
The US failed in Iraq because, in its ignorance, it did not know how — or seek to find out how — to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. It compounded its lack of understanding by heavy-handed military tactics such as the assault on Fallujah that alienated even those who were willing to give the benefit of the doubt. There are signs that America’s NATO allies in Afghanistan are fed up with US behavior there. The British in particular, who have stood by while Washington blundered in Iraq, seem unprepared to let the Americans make the same mistakes in Afghanistan.
There is a further similarity in the excuses trotted out by NATO commanders since the Taleban switched to car bomb tactics in Kabul. It is ascribed to NATO successes in the Taleban heartland in the south and east of the country. The Americans have made identical claims in Iraq when what has really been happening is that the insurgents have been expanding the scope of their operations. Given that Taleban forces have briefly seized control of two districts in the south in the last few days, it hardly looks as if, militarily, they are on a bad footing.
The third similarity is just as disturbing. Sophisticated roadside bombs are beginning to take a growing toll among Afghan and NATO army units and civilian transport. These devices are reportedly identical with those deployed against the British forces in southern Iraq and they appear to be of Iranian origin. Tehran never enjoyed comfortable relations with Afghanistan’s Taleban regime. Indeed at the time of Mullah Omar’s ouster, the Iranians were open in their backing for the western warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
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http://arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=97768&d=21&m=6&y=2007