[THS] NATO covered up botched night raid in Afghanistan that killed five

[Peter Webster]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7060395.ece

From The Times
March 13, 2010
Nato ‘covered up’ botched night raid in Afghanistan that killed five
Jerome Starkey, Khataba

Haji Sharabuddin holds up a photo of his sons, one a police commander, the other
an attorney, who were among five people killed during a joint US-Afghan night raid
in Paktia province
Image :1 of 5

A night raid carried out by US and Afghan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant
women, a teenage girl and two local officials in an atrocity which Nato then tried to
cover up, survivors have told The Times.

The operation on Friday, February 12, was a botched pre-dawn assault on a
policeman’s home a few miles outside Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, eastern
Afghanistan. In a statement after the raid titled “Joint force operating in Gardez
makes gruesome discovery”, Nato claimed that the force had found the women’s
bodies “tied up, gagged and killed” in a room.

A Times investigation suggests that Nato’s claims are either wilfully false or, at best,
misleading. More than a dozen survivors, officials, police chiefs and a religious leader
interviewed at and around the scene of the attack maintain that the perpetrators
were US and Afghan gunmen. The identity and status of the soldiers is unknown.

The raid came more than a fortnight after the commander of US and Nato forces in
Afghanistan issued new guidelines designed to limit the use of night raids. Special
forces and Western intelligence agencies that run covert operations in Afghanistan
have been criticised for night raids based on dubious or false intelligence leading to
civilian casualties.

The first person to die in the assault was Commander Dawood, 43, a long-serving,
popular and highly-trained policeman who had recently been promoted to head of
intelligence in one of Paktia’s most volatile districts. His brother, Saranwal Zahir, was
a prosecutor in Ahmadabad district. He was killed while he stood in a doorway trying
to protest their innocence.

Three women crouching in a hallway behind him were hit by the same volley of fire.
Bibi Shirin, 22, had four children under the age of 5. Bibi Saleha, 37, had 11
children. Both of them, according to their relatives, were pregnant. They were killed
instantly.

The men’s mother, Bibi Sabsparie, said that Shirin was four months pregnant and
Saleha was five months. The other victim, Gulalai, 18, was engaged. She was
wounded and later died. “We had already bought everything for the wedding,” her
soon-to-be father-in-law, Sayed Mohammed Mal, the Vice-Chancellor of Gardez
University, said.

On the night of the attack about 25 male friends and relatives had gathered at
Commander Dawood’s compound in Khataba, a small village, to celebrate the naming
of a newborn boy. Sitting together along the walls of a guest room, the men had
taken turns dancing while musicians played. Mohammed Sediq Mahmoudi, 24, the
singer, said that at some time after 3am one of the musicians, Dur Mohammed, went
outside to go to the toilet. “Someone shone a light on his face and he ran back inside
and said the Taleban were outside,” Mr Sediq said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Zamarud Zazai, the Gardez head of police intelligence, said: “Both
sides thought the other group was Taleban.” Commander Dawood ran towards the
family quarters with his son Sediqullah, 15. Halfway across the courtyard they were
shot by a gunman on the roof. Commander Dawood was killed. Sediqullah, his uncles
said, was hit twice but survived.

The shooting stopped and the soldiers shouted in Pashto for everyone to come
outside. Waheedullah, an ambulance driver, said that their accents sounded
Kandahari.

Nato said that the troops were part of a joint “Afghan-international” force but,
despite new rules requiring them to leave leaflets identifying their unit, the family
said they left nothing. Local US forces denied any involvement.

In the hallway on the other side of the compound, women poured in to tend to the
casualties. Commander Dawood’s mother said: “Zahir shouted, ‘don’t fire, we work
for the Government’. But while he was talking they fired again. I saw him fall down. I
turned around and saw my daughter-in-law and the other women were dead.”

Mohammed Sabir, 26, the youngest brother of Commander Dawood and Zahir, was
one of eight men arrested and flown to a base in neighbouring Paktika province.
They were held for four days and interrogated by an American in civilian clothes who
showed them pictures of their suspect. “I said, ‘Yes, it’s Shamsuddin. He was at the
party. Why didn’t you arrest him?’ ” Sabir said. After they were released without
charge Shamsuddin — who had spent five months fixing generators at the local
American base — turned himself in for questioning. He, too, was released without
charge.

Nato’s original statement said: “Several insurgents engaged the joint force in a
firefight and were killed.” The family maintain that no one threw so much as a stone.
Rear Admiral Greg Smith, Nato’s director of communications in Kabul, denied that
there had been any attempt at a cover-up.

He said that both the men who were killed were armed and showing “hostile intent”
but admitted “they were not the targets of this particular raid”.

“I don’t know if they fired any rounds,” he said. “If you have got an individual
stepping out of a compound, and if your assault force is there, that is often the
trigger to neutralise the individual. You don’t have to be fired upon to fire back.”

He admitted that the original statement had been “poorly worded” but said “to
people who see a lot of dead bodies” the women had appeared at the time to have
been dead for several hours.

The family were offered, through local elders, American compensation — $2,000
(£1,300) for each of the victims.

“There’s no value on human life,” Bibi Sabsparie said. “They killed our family, then
they came and brought us money. Money won’t bring our family back.”