killed and injured at 1 AM on December 12, 2006

 

in the village of Darnami, 15 kms west of Khost city. U.S Special Forces raided the home of Sarfaraz, an Afghan intelligence official serving in Khost. Engineer Shafiq Mandozai, manager of a private bank in Khost and a member of the Sarfaraz family, said US occupation troops broke into the home and an interpreter working with the occupation forces ordered everyone in a Kandahari dialect out of the home. “Come out and be safe,” the man said. Shafiq’s father, Mohammad Jan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, grabbed a gun. “I told my father, ‘Don’t go out, it’s al-Qaeda,” Shafiq, 23, said. “When he opened the door the shooting started. Bullets flew in through the windows and doors. I could hear in my father’s voice that he was injured.” Shafiq’s 13-year-old sister, Khadijah, rushed to her father’s aid, but just then an explosion blasted open the door, fatally wounding her. The father lay bleeding in the cold for hours, was eventually evacuated but later died. US forces started shooting and three persons were killed (the girl, Sarfaraz, Engineer Shafiq’s father Mohammad Jan). Startled by the midnight firing, neighbors came out and rushed towards the home of Sarafaz. Guldad, an official working with the intelligence department in Khost, said two more civilians were then injured by US occupation forces. Engineer Shafiq Mandozai, a member of the ill-fated family, said the coalition troops entered into his house around 1 p.m. (local time) and ordered the people to vacate the house. "As we were coming out of the house, the soldiers opened fire, injuring several members of my family." Engineer Shafiq (in photo), employed in the Azuzi Bank in Khost, continued in a conversation with Pajhwok Afghan News, “the U.S forces tied (me) up and thrashed me. As they were about to kill me, I presented them with my bank card and other documents, seeing which they released me.” The U.S attack killed five members of an extended family and injured two sisters (including an 8-yr-old girl).

Predictably, US propaganda spokesperson in Kabul, U.S. Army Col. Thomas Collins (veteran of the U.S. Army Information Service) reported to the mainstream corporate press which duly carried his account, that the home was used as a refuge for terrorist facilitators operating in Khost Province. Terrorists in the home opened fire, resulting in the deaths of four suspected terrorists and a 13-yr-old Afghan girl. Mssrs Sarfaraz and Mohammad Jan [chief of the forest department], both local government employees, would be surprised to know they were Taliban! We owe this report to Abdul Majid Arif and Javid Hamim of Pajhwok Afghan News. The corporate mainstream press (e.g., the Associated Press [at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/12/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Violence.php , the BBC) has as usual first reported the official U.S. military version. On December 14th, hundreds of tribesmen protested the killings in a demonstration held on the Khost-Gardez highway. The photos (from http://newsaboutafghanistan.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html ) show the results of the mis-guided, deadly U.S. raid. Zartellah, 45, wife of the slaughtered Mohammad Jan, speaks with reporters in Darnami village. Afisullah shows blood-stained clothing after the U.S. raid on his brother’s home (photos by Amir Shah, A.P.).

 

Killed by US Special Forces occupation troops