Kabul, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said Monday that a number of civilians were killed during a raid on Taliban hideouts by U.S. and Afghan special forces in the southern Helmand province. A U.S. military official confirmed to CBS News that American air power was called in to support the forces during the raid targeting a senior al Qaeda operative, and said the U.S. was “assessing the claims” of civilian casualties.
There were conflicting reports on the numbers of killed and wounded, but it is just the latest instance of purported civilian casualties blamed on U.S. and Afghan forces as the fight against the Taliban and its partners heats up.
Already 2019 has seen more civilian casualties blamed on Afghan and coalition security forces than on the Taliban.
U.S. military officials confirmed to CBS News that at least a dozen militants were killed in the raid in the Taliban-controlled Musa Qala district of Helmand, including several “senior members of al Qaeda.”
Omar Zwak, the provincial governor’s spokesman in Helmand, said 14 insurgents including six foreigners were killed, but he confirmed there were also reported civilian casualties that the governor’s office was investigating.
Zwak and a U.S. military official told CBS News that four people were arrested, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals. One of those detained was a woman.
Abdul Majid Akhundzada, a member of the provincial council in Helmand, told CBS News that at least 35 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the operation as a wedding party taking place near the targeted building was caught up in the raid. He said the government had been told in advance that a wedding was taking place, but he did not deny that Taliban militants were known to operate in the area.
A U.S. military official told CBS News that during the operation a suicide bomber came out of the targeted house and blew himself up, killing and wounding “several people” in the house. When other militants opened fire on the Afghan and U.S. special forces, U.S. airstrikes were called in.
Separately a U.S. defense official in Afghanistan told CBS News that there were multiple secondary blasts after the airstrikes, indicating the compound was being used as a weapons cache.
“The locals are trapped in a war between the Taliban and the U.S. and Afghan forces,” one local resident told CBS News by phone. “We told the Taliban, ‘don’t settle foreign militants near our houses,’ we told the Afghan government, ‘don’t target us if militants live in the middle of our houses, that is not our wish or our fault, we can’t stop anyone, don’t kill us.'”
The U.S. military often accuses the Taliban of using human shields by operating in areas with a significant civilian presence.
Last week a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar province, aimed at ISIS militants, purportedly left nine civilians dead. The U.S. military confirmed it was investigating the report of civilian casualties, but noted the U.S. was “fighting in a complex environment against those who intentionally kill and hide behind civilians, as well as use dishonest claims of non-combatant casualties as propaganda weapons.”
Nonetheless, with little hope for an imminent peace deal to end the war that began with the post 9/11 U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban in 2001, civilian casualties continue to mount — and continue to be blamed often on the country’s own U.S.-backed security forces, or America itself.
As CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata reported last week, with President Trump’s cancellation of direct peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, there is little prospect for any political resolution to the war in Afghanistan at present. While President Trump said recently that the terror groups in the country are being hit “harder than they have ever been hit before,” the U.S. death toll continues to rise, and so does the civilian toll.
The Taliban and other militant groups were expected to step up their attacks as Afghanistan prepares to hold national elections this weekend.
CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata, and CBS News’ Ahmad Mukhtar and Sami Yousafzai contributed to this report.
