Free Fire Zones in the Afghan Province of the Empire?
“In memory of
Munir’s mother
Munir’s sister, 8
Munir’s infant brother, Abdul Haq, buried alive
killed and wounded in the late afternoon of December 1, 2001
in the mountain village of Kama Ado (Madoo), 40 kms south of Jalalabad in the Tor mountains. It was Ramadan. Munir, 12, recalled, “We heard the voice of planes and we went outside to see what was happening. A bomb landed on our home. There weren’t Taliban or Arabs with us. For nothing they dropped bombs here.” After the first U.S bomb exploded, Munir’s mother and 8-year-old sister were dead. His infant brother, Abdul Haq, was buried alive. Relatives spotted the boy’s foot sticking out of a mound of dirt and dug him out. The U.S. war planes returned three times; destroying all 30 mud brick homes in Kama Ado and killing at 55-150 loved ones. Many bodies were too damaged to be recognized. In April 2003, Munir told a visiting journalist, “Before it was good here. The people and my father worked on the land. Life was better than it is now. We have lost everything.” Munir’s father, Shingul, 55, now raising four surviving children alone, tried to talk about his late wife and daughter but could only turn away and weep.
B-52’s dropped bombs on a string of mountain villages including Kama Ado
If this account is true, then there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate military — from the “rules of engagement” that the armed forces use — reason to be dropping bombs. My guess is that air strikes are used as a way of carrying out collective punishment, the area is considered a “free fire zone”, or there was just a bloodthirsty desire to kill any Afghans.
They might have hit insurgents in some of the other villages.”
This account is from The Afghan Victim Memorial and raises some disturbing questions about the use of airpower in Afghanistan.
If this account is true, then there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate military — from the “rules of engagement” that the armed forces use — reason to be dropping bombs. My guess is that air strikes are used as a way of carrying out collective punishment, the area is considered a “free fire zone”, or there was just a bloodthirsty desire to kill any Afghans.
They might have hit insurgents in some of the other villages.
Natasha | LeftLibertarian.org, War and Peace
