Pakistan airstrike kills 71 civilians: official

Source: AP

Pakistan airstrike kills 71 civilians: official
By RIAZ KHAN and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writers 36 mins ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Up to 71 civilians were killed in a weekend strike by Pakistani jets near the Afghan border, survivors and a government official said Tuesday — a rare confirmation of civilian casualties that risks undercutting public support for the fight against militants.

The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.

Also Tuesday, a village elder claimed 13 civilians had been killed in U.S. missile strike on Monday night elsewhere in the northwest, contesting accounts by Pakistani security officials that four militants were killed.

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Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas on Monday denied that any of the dead in the Pakistani air force attack were civilians, saying the army had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants. The military regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes in the northwest, but rarely says it is responsible for civilian deaths.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan;_ylt=AtLiRtGX_7hPMlLfhVtyuvzuOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTMwaGN0ZmE1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDEzL2FzX3Bha2lzdGFuBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3Bha2lzdGFuYWlycw--

we should be so proud. :sarcasm:

The longer we stay, the higher the price will be...FOREVER!

GET OUT NOW!!

We did not do it, and we are not there.

Pakistan's errant airstrike reportedly kills 71 civilians
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers 1 hr 47 mins ago

ISLAMABAD — A misdirected airstrike killed at least 71 innocent villagers in Pakistan's tribal zone Saturday as the army pressed its offensive against Taliban and al Qaida fighters, local residents said Tuesday.

The airstrike occurred in a remote part of the Khyber "agency," part of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan , as thousands more civilians poured out of the area to escape the military offensive. The United Nations said this week that Pakistan's anti- Taliban offensives had created more than 200,000 refugees, this time mostly from the Orakzai agency, which is next to Khyber.

The Pakistani military refused to acknowledge the accidental deaths but the local government administration told tribesmen that it would pay $118,000 compensation. Military officials said they'd targeted bunkers that extremists were constructing in the Tirah valley and were unsure how a house could have been hit.

The episode may be a significant setback to the campaign to win the hearts and minds of the tribal area's population. The house that was struck belonged to a tribal elder from the Kukikhel — a clan that's loyal to the Pakistani government — whose three sons serve in the Pakistani military forces.

The issue of civilian casualties in Pakistan mirrors that of Afghanistan , where U.S.-led forces on many occasions have targeted civilians unintentionally because of poor intelligence and the difficulty of distinguishing friend from enemy. ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100413/wl_mcclatchy/3476296