during April 27 – 29, 2007

Go Team America (= U.S. Special Forces with close air support by the U.S. Air Force). Naturally this report is not carried by the Associated Press. This report is about a 2-3 day assault, April 27-29, 2007 by U.S. occupation forces upon a string of small villages in the Zerkoh Valley, Shindand district of Herat Province.

“US raids made 2,000 Afghans homeless: Red Cross”

May 19, 2007 at 12:31 EST, 2 hours, 10 minutes ago

KABUL (AFP) - Bombing by US forces in western last month wrecked 173 houses and left 2,000 people homeless, the Red Cross said, announcing findings of its assessment of the damage.

Preliminary UN and Afghan investigations have found that around 50 civilians were killed in the April 27 and 29 assaults, which involved US Special Forces, with final reports due this week.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed in a statement that the clashes "killed dozens of civilians" and reprimanded foreign forces over civilian casualties caused in operations against Taliban militants.

The assault also "left 230 families, almost 2,000 people, in four villages homeless," it said.

A delegation from the Red Cross and the Afghan Red Crescent Society also found that "173 houses had been destroyed or were so badly damaged as to be uninhabitable."

The groups are distributing relief to the displaced families, including food, tarpaulins, pressure cookers, blankets and jerry cans.

The US-led coalition has said 136 Taliban fighters were killed in the clashes.

It is investigating claims of civilian deaths, with the reported toll one of the highest in the campaign against the militants, which has lasted nearly six years. The US military has said an "appropriate level of force" was used.

The head of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, said all sides involved in the conflict were "legally obliged to distinguish at all times between legitimate military objectives and the civilian population and civilian objects."

They must weigh up the possible incidental loss of civilian life and damage against the expected military outcome of an attack, Stocker said in the statement.

Postscript: An internal investigation by the U.S. military found that U.S. Special Forces had used “an appropriate level of force” in the assault upon the Zerkoh Valley villages (details in http://rawstory.com/news/afp/_Appropriate_force_used_in_civilian_05162007.html ).

And in rare pictures taken of Parmakan village in the Zerkoh Valley (by Joao Silva for The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/world/asia/13AFGHAN.html?ex=1336708800&en=61236344761fc69f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss ):

Abdul Quduz, 16, in front of his home. Abdul said the U.S. “precision” bombing killed his father and uncle.

Sarah on the left said the

U.S.

bombing killed four of her relatives.

The village elder surveys a school demolished by U.S. firing.

Graves of some civilians killed in Parmakan village.

A lucky one: a wounded Afghan lies in a hospital in Herat after a U.S.-led operation in Shindand district, where local officials said 45 to 51 civilians were killed (by Fraidoon Pooyaa -- Associated Press – at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202757.html ).