{"id":144968,"date":"2019-10-14T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=144968"},"modified":"2019-10-21T10:21:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T09:21:20","slug":"afghanistan-probe-at-least-60-civilians-killed-after-us-military-airstrikes-on-alleged-drug-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/10\/afghanistan-probe-at-least-60-civilians-killed-after-us-military-airstrikes-on-alleged-drug-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan Probe: \u2018At Least 60 Civilians\u2019 Killed after US Military Airstrikes on Alleged Drug Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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9 Oct 2019 – <\/em>\u00a0\u201cMultiple\u201d airstrikes by the US military on alleged methamphetamine drug labs in a remote area of western Afghanistan earlier this year, killed or injured hundreds of civilians who should not have been treated as military targets, the UN said<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a special report into the impact of damage to more than 60 sites in Farah province\u2019s Bakwa district and in neighbouring Delaram district on 5 May, investigators from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA<\/a>), verified 39 civilian casualties \u2013 30 deaths, five injured and four \u201cundetermined\u201d. The toll included 14 children and one woman.<\/p>\n

Together with the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR<\/a>) – which jointly produced the report – UNAMA said that it had also received reliable and credible reports of at least 37 further civilian casualties \u2013 30 deaths and seven injured – the majority of whom were women and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some of the civilians killed or injured in the airstrikes were working in the drug labs, others \u2013 including women and children \u2013 were not,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

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A typical day at the popular Mandawi market in Kabul, Afghanistan. UNAMA\/Fardin Waezi<\/p><\/div>\n

Homes \u2018Are Not a Target\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was no military advantage to be gained from the bombardment, it continued, pointing out that some of the buildings targeted \u2013 including family residences – had no apparent link to drug-making. Methamphetamine, or meth, is a highly-addictive illegal\u00a0stimulant that is typically manufactured in makeshift laboratories, using easily-available chemicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNAMA found that the civilian structures that were allegedly used as drug labs and were hit during the airstrikes did not have a sufficient nexus to the Taliban\u2019s war-fighting operations to warrant their classification as military objectives,\u201d the report stated, referring to the non-state armed group that has carried out years of deadly attacks on civilians.<\/p>\n

Although the Taliban controls Bakwa district and uses drug-making facilities to fund its operations, the report noted that the drug production facilities targeted \u201cwere not controlled and operated exclusively by the Taliban, but rather they were owned and operated by criminal groups with connections to international drug trafficking networks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018First Time Airstrikes Have Caused Mass Casualties\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a statement calling for aerial bombardments that target drug facilities to stop,\u00a0 the UN mission and OHCHR noted that although the tactic was not new, \u201cthis was the first time that UNAMA had received reports of a large number of civilian casualties resulting from such an operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the probe, the United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), assessed that there had been no civilian casualties in the airstrikes. This finding is in line with \u201clongstanding United States policy\u201d it said,\u00a0which considers that economic objects that contribute to a party\u2019s war effort are \u201clegitimate military objectives\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, this is contrary to international humanitarian law, the report\u2019s authors insisted, pointing out that drug facilities and people working there \u201cmay not be lawfully made the target of attack, and should be protected\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the issue of drug abuse in Afghanistan, the report acknowledges the growing threat posed by the methamphetamine industry and the \u201cextreme and wide-ranging harm\u201d to the country\u2019s people and broader region of narcotics in general.<\/p>\n

But as an alternative to airstrikes, the report suggests that the \u201cappropriate and legal\u201d response to illicit drug activity is through law enforcement, \u201cnot military operations that endanger civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n

Additional recommendations include an appeal to USFOR-A to conduct an independent and transparent investigation to examine the impact on civilians from the 5 May operation.<\/p>\n

These findings should be made public, as well as measures taken to ensure accountability, as well as measures to provide \u201cappropriate redress\u201d to victims and their family members, the UN report urged.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 news.un.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 Oct 2019 – \u201cMultiple\u201d airstrikes by the US military on alleged methamphetamine drug labs in a remote area of western Afghanistan earlier this year, killed or injured hundreds of civilians who should not have been treated as military targets, the UN said today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":144969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,57,219,82],"tags":[93,94,133,120,1268,267,1126,487,1050,866,504,651,263,291,91,86,112,109,287,103,107,985,880,484,292,70,126,118,492,172,75],"class_list":["post-144968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","category-militarism","category-central-asia-2","category-united-nations","tag-afghanistan","tag-central-asia","tag-cia","tag-conflict","tag-european-union","tag-geopolitics","tag-hegemony","tag-human-rights","tag-imperialism","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-justice","tag-matw","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-occupation","tag-pentagon","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-social-justice","tag-state-terrorism","tag-taliban","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-war-on-terror","tag-west","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}