US plays down Afghan civilian death toll

Video evidence recorded by fighter jets and the account of the ground commander suggest no more than 30 civilians were killed in a two-day battle in western Afghanistan this month, the US military said, a stark contrast with Afghan claims that 140 civilians died.

The footage shows insurgents streaming into homes that were later bombed, Colonel Greg Julian, the chief US military spokesman in Afghanistan, said.

He said ground troops observed some 300 villagers flee in advance of the fighting, indicating that not many could have been inside the bombed compounds.

The figures, which the Americans called preliminary, are far lower than the numbers villagers provided to an Afghan government commission days after the May 4-5 battle in the villages of Gerani and Ganjabad in Farah province.

The Afghan government has paid compensation to families who claimed relatives were killed; the US contends the money could have acted as an incentive for families to inflate the numbers of victims.

A list of 140 names provided by villagers includes at least 60 females and more than 90 people under age 18.

Col Julian said the exact number killed might never be known and US investigators were still trying to determine what happened.

US investigators initially visited the area and said the number and size of the mass graves did not support the Afghan claims of 140 dead. No corpses were exhumed.

Investigators later reviewed hours of cockpit video from the fighter jets as well as audio recordings of the air crew’s conversation with the ground commander. Col Julian said the military would release the footage and other evidence in the coming days.

US officials initially suggested that Taliban grenades may have been responsible for at least some of the civilian deaths.

But in later statements, the military placed the blame on Taliban militants who put civilians at risk by dashing into their homes.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for an end to airstrikes and raids in villages, warning that civilian deaths are causing Afghans to side with the Taliban as the Obama administration pours more troops into the country to battle the raging insurgency.

The United States warns that as long as insurgents fight from civilian areas, there are likely to be civilian deaths.

On Tuesday, a Nato airstrike aimed at 25 insurgents killed eight Afghan civilians in the southern Helmand province, the alliance said in a statement.