'Did Western troops come here to kill my children?' Afghan villagers' despair as three boys are killed in airstrike

By Daily Mail Reporter

August 5, 2009

Outraged southern Afghan villagers said today that a pre-dawn airstrike killed three children and a man in the latest case of civilian deaths at the hands of Western troops.

The U.S. military said it had killed four insurgents on motorcycles in that area and could not confirm any civilian fatalities.

Residents of Kowuk were seen bringing the bodies of three boys and a man to the guesthouse of the Kandahar governor from their village, 12 miles north of the provincial capital, Kandahar city.

Afghan men transport the bodies of four civilians killed in an airstrike

The angry villagers shouted 'Death to America! Death to infidels!' as they displayed the corpses in the back of a pickup truck.

The issue of civilian casualties at the hands of foreign troops has caused deep resentment among Afghan people.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called on foreign troops to halt airstrikes and raids in Afghan villages.

Soon after assuming command of NATO and U.S. forces last month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal ordered troops to limit the use of airstrikes to prevent civilian casualties.

Abdur Rahim, the father of the boys and uncle of the slain man, claimed he heard a pair of helicopters circling over his compound at 1:30 a.m. before they fired two missiles that hit his home. His brother and another son were wounded, he said.

'What was the fault of my innocent children? They were not Taliban,' Rahim said. "Did they come here to build our country or kill our innocent children?'

A U.S. military spokeswoman said a helicopter had fired on four insurgents carrying jugs on motorcycles through a field away from a populated area of the local district, Arghandab.

'The helicopter engaged the militants with guns and rockets, however the explosions heard by locals were caused by the jugs the insurgents were carrying exploding,' said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. Commanders on the ground were checking into reports of civilian deaths, she said.