US To Reopen Afghan Attack Case As New Evidence Emerges

An article from BBC News says that United States forces in Afghanistan are re-opening an investigation into an air attack that reportedly kill many civilians. The articles says that the United States military now says that there is new information pertaining to the raid in the western Herat province that killed as many as 90 civilians. Another report from the Guardian says that the case was reopened after the US military found a video recorded on a mobile phone that showed rows and rows of bodies lined up in a morgue after the attack. An initial inquiry by the United States military had found that 35 insurgents and seven civilians had died in the air strike.

The re-opening of the case comes after Human Rights Watch warned the United States that such attacks were undermining sucess in Afghanistan for the United States and Nato. The group went on to say that the use of less ground forces and overwhelming air power was leading to mistakes that had led to a dramatic decrease in support for the government and international troops.

Human Rights Watch has gone on to say that in 2008 at least 321 Afghan civilians were killed in international airstrikes. The group did say that most of the civilian casualties occured in raids that were unplanned and providing requested support to ground troops.