21 Afghanis Killed, Mostly Women and Children, in US Air Strike, UN Strongly Concerned, September 28, 2018

21 Afghanis Killed, Mostly Women and Children, in US Air Strike, UN Strongly Concerned

September 28, 2018


An Afghan boy is treated at a hospital following an air strike in the Dashti Archi district of Kunduz Province in April 2018

UN 'Strongly Concerned' After Afghan Children, Women Killed In Air Strike

Radio Free Europe, September 26, 2018

The UN mission in Afghanistan has expressed “strong concern” over the rising numbers of civilian casualties caused by aerial operations, as two separate air strikes over the weekend appear to have killed a total of 21 civilians.

Citing preliminary findings, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on September 26 said that 12 women and children from the same family were killed when an "aerial ordnance" destroyed their house in Maidan Wardak Province, west of Kabul.

The incident took place late on September 23 in the village of Mullah Hafez, Jaghato district, during operations conducted by pro-government forces in the area, a statement said.

Provincial council member Ahmad Jahfari told the AFP news agency that the strike targeted Taliban militants.

In a separate statement issued on September 25, UNAMA said it had received "multiple, credible allegations" that a September 22 air strike hit the house of a teacher in Kapisa Province, north of the capital, killing nine members of the same family.

Those killed included three women and four children, it said. Six other people were wounded.

UNAMA said it was unclear whether the two air strikes were carried out by Afghan or NATO forces.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish confirmed civilian casualties in Kapisa during a joint operation by Afghan and U.S. forces that involved air support and said an investigation was under way.

The U.S. military carried out an air strike in support of Afghan ground troops in Kapisa but killed "only militants," said David Butler, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Afghan security forces have struggled to counter attacks from the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014.

UNAMA said it was currently reviewing reports of civilian casualties from "a number of alleged air strikes in other parts of the country."

It also reiterated its call on all parties to the conflict to “take additional measures to prevent harm to the civilian population.”

About 7 percent of all civilian casualties in the Afghan conflict in the first half of 2018 were attributed to air operations, the UNAMA statement said.

The mission said it recorded a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties –149 deaths and 204 injured – from aerial attacks compared to the same period in 2017.

https://www.rferl.org/a/un-strongly-concerned-after-afghan-children-women-killed-in-air-strike/29510571.html

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Afghanistan: Reported US covert actions 2018

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

September 26, 2018

The timeline below contains information on all US air attacks on Afghanistan recorded by the Bureau in 2018. It is updated with the latest US air attacks. We also log Afghan Air Force attacks when they are reported. The Bureau collects information on the US and Afghan strikes and the people they kill from local and international media reports – including the Bureau’s own field investigations – as well as academics and NGOs that cite US, Afghan and Pakistani civil, military and intelligence officials, and witnesses and local people in the affected areas.

Please note that our data changes according to our current understanding of particular strikes. The information below represents our present best estimate.

Background

US aircraft have been bombing Afghanistan since late 2001 and the airstrikes have continued into the Trump administration. Up until December 2014 the US was operating in concert with its allies in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force. Now it is just the US, and the Afghans, flying strike missions in the country.

The Bureau began tracking the strikes from January 1 2015 onwards, when the US and Nato’s combat mission in Afghanistan came to an end. The Afghan military and police took the lead in fighting the Taliban with the US and its international partners moving into a non-combat “train, advise, assist” role, supporting local forces.

US air forces are still flying combat missions however. There are three targeting authorities that govern the kind of strikes the US can conduct in Afghanistan.

Force protection strikes are intended to protect friendly ground forces who are under attack, or are about to be attacked. From January 1 2015 the US was supposed to stop deliberately going after the Taliban, leaving that to the Afghans. But in June 2016, with the Taliban pushing the Afghan forces to breaking point, the US went on the offensive against the Taliban, under “strategic effect” strikes.

The third authority governs the US’s counter-terrorism strikes, part of its offensive operations against al Qaeda and, since January 2016, Afghanistan’s Islamic State offshoot.

Full data

The Bureau publishes a narrative timeline of US strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen each year. Links for all other timelines can be found here.

We also publish spreadsheets detailing casualty numbers in each country. You can download the entire Afghanistan sheet here.

Reported US strikes, Afghanistan 2018 Strikes recorded by the Bureau

Total reported strikes 204-205

Total reported killed 621-723

Civilians reported killed 0-26

Children reported killed 0-11

Total reported injured 49-82

US Air Force reported air operations, Afghanistan 2018

Total Close Air Support (CAS) sorties with at least one weapon release 412

Total CAS sorties 3649

Total weapons released 2911

See the full report on the following link:

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/drone-war/data/afghanistan-reported-us-covert-actions-2018

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