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Thursday, July 29, 2010

7 children killed - USA unjudicial killing team


Reference ID
Region Latitude Longitude
AFG20070617n853 RC EAST 33.0050087 68.70246124
Date Type Category Affiliation Detained
2007-06-17 21:09 Friendly Action Other FRIEND 7

Enemy Friend Civilian Host nation
Killed in action 6 0 7 0
Wounded in action 0 0 0 0

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/event/2007/06/AFG20070617n853.html

http://thegirlcanwrite.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/children-in-body-bags.jpg

NOTE: The following information (TF-373 and HIMARS) is Classified Secret / NOFORN. The knowledge that TF-373 conducted a
HIMARS strike must be kept protected. All other information below is classified Secret / REL ISAF.

(S) Mission: O/O SOTF conducts kinetic strike followed with HAF raid to kill/capture ABU LAYTH AL LIBI on NAI 2.

(S)Target: Abu Layth Al Libi is a senior al-Qaida military commander, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) leader.
He is based in Mir Ali, Pakistan and runs training camps throughout North Waziristan.
Collection over the past week indicates a concentration of Arabs IVO objective area.

http://www.theglobalreport.org/issues/147/AFGHANIS1.GIF

Result: 6 x EKIA; 7 x NC KIA, 7 x detainees

(S) Summary: HAF departed for Orgun-E to conduct link-up and posture to the objective immediately after pre-assault fires.

On order, 5 rockets were launched and destroyed structures on the objective (NAI 2).
The HAF quickly inserted the assault force into the HLZ. ISR reported multiple UIMs leaving the objective area.
The assault force quickly conducted dismounted movement to the target area and established
containment on the south side of the objective. During the initial assault, dedicated air assets
engaged multiple MAMs squirting off the objective area. GFC assessed 3 x EKIA squirters north
and 3 x EKIA squirters south of the compound were neutralized from air asset fires. The assault
force quickly maneuvered with a SQD element on the remaining squirters. The squirter element
detained 12 x MAMs and returned to the objective area. GFC passed initial assessment of 7 x NC KIA (children).

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sNkUMCqAmjPmaDLiBCsbWoyBfb5Hnnnv5OdjZQxQatZ2z8kDrIA624VSFw00svtOK0vgYQzEC6me5mn_XSLd354d2dz-ft3Sv9xYdAbUInaYWuMb9JGwjhGaNLTMT6jfhlhU/s320/Iraq+pool+of+blood.jpg

During initial questioning, it was assessed that the children were not allowed out of the building,
due to UIMs presence within the compound. The assault force was able to uncover 1 x NC child from the rubble.
The MED TM immediately cleared debris form the mouth and performed CPR to revive the child for 20 minutes.
Due to time restrictions, TF CDR launched QRF element to action a follow-on target (NAI 5).
They quickly contained the objective and initiated the assault.
The objective was secured and the assault force initially detained 6 x MAMs.
The GFC recommended that 7 MAMs be detained for additional questioning.
The TF CDR assessed that the assault force will continue SSE.
The local governor was notified of the current situation and requests for assistance were made to cordon
the AO with support from ANP and local coalition forces in search of HVI. A PRT is enroute to AO.

1) Target was an AQ
(AL QAEDA) Senior Leader

2) Patterns of life were conducted on 18 June from 0800z 1815z (strike time) with no indications of women or children on the objective

3) The Mosque was not targeted nor was it struck initial reports state there is no damage to the Mosque

4) An elder who was at the Mosque stated that the children were held against their will and were intentionally kept inside

UPDATE: 18 0850Z June 07

- Governor Khapalwak has had no success yet in reaching President Karzai (due to the Presidents busy schedule today)
but expects to reach him within the hour (PoA reached later in the afternoon ~ 1400Z)

- The Governor conducted a Shura this morning, in attendance were locals from both the Yahya Yosof Khail & Khail Districts

- He pressed the Talking Points given to him and added a few of his own that followed in line with our current story

- The atmospherics of the local populous is that they are in shock, but understand it was caused ultimately by the presence of hoodlums

- the people think it is good that bad men were killed

- the people regret the loss of life among the children

- The Governor echoed the tragedy of children being killed, but stressed this couldve been prevented had the people exposed
 the presence of insurgents in the area

- The Governor promised another Shura in a few days and that the families would be compensated for their loss

- Tthe Governor was asked what the mood of the people was and he stated that "the operation was a good thing,
and the people believe what we have told them"

- Additionally, the people accused the Yahya Khail Chief of Police and his officers of corruption and collusion with TB in the area


- The Governor and the Provincial NDS Chief relieved the CofP and his officers, disarmed them, and they are currently detained and enroute to
Sharana at this time unknown as to total numbers detained (MTF on this incident)
Report key: 15A27543-B022-4736-AC31-71006B18794E
Tracking number: 2007-186-112133-0753
Attack on: FRIEND
Complex atack: FALSE
Reporting unit: CJTF-82
Unit name: CJTF-82
Type of unit: None Selected
Originator group: UNKNOWN
Updated by group: UNKNOWN
MGRS: 42SVB7220751882
CCIR: (SIR IMMEDIATE 7) Injury/Death of local national due to coalition actions
Sigact: CJTF-82
DColor: BLUE



http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/data/upimages/nato_victim_lashkargah_afghanistan.jpg


 One particularly sensitive report of a TF 373 operation dated June
17, 2007 is classified so secret that details of the mission must not be
 passed on to other ISAF forces. On this day the soldiers appear to have
 committed a particularly fatal error. The aim of the mission seems to
have been to kill the prominent al-Qaida official Abu Laith. The unit
had spent weeks watching a Koran school in which the Americans believed
the al-Qaida man and several aides were living. But the five rockets
they launched from a mobile rocket launcher ended up killing the wrong people.

Instead of the finding the top terrorist, the troops found the bodies of six dead children in the rubble of the completely destroyed school. One other child who was seriously wounded could not be saved even though a medic spent 20 minutes trying to revive him. Such a dramatic incident can't be kept secret and one day later the US army had to apologize publicly.

Routine Murder

The tone of the reports conveys how routine killing has become routine for the members of Task Force 373. One terse report on December 26, 2008 says an operation against a target identified as "Object Midway" cleared a number of compounds and found components for making improvised explosive devices. A brief entry lower down mentions that the soldiers killed 11 supposed insurgents and wounded one local Afghan civilian. The report makes no mention of the reason for the killing.

Even though it is an American unit, the revelations of its secret operations are likely to embarrass the German government. Some 300 soldiers from TF-373 have been stationed at the German military base Camp Marmal since the sommer of 2009. They operate as part of the Northern Regional Command, which is under German command.

Their presence was an awkward issue from the start and was something of a taboo even under Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who took over the ministry last October. His only reference to them was during a visit to the troops in November 2009 when he said vaguely that the Germans "are grateful for any help provided by the US Army." Elite troops had just spent five days attacking the Taliban bastion of Gul Tepa north-west of Kunduz. Some 130 people were killed, all of them insurgents, according to the US Army.



how the Pentagon tracked down the source of the leaks.

On 21 May, a Californian computer hacker called Adrian Lamo was contacted by somebody with the online name Bradass87 who started to swap instant messages with him. He was immediately extraordinarily open: "hi… how are you?… im an army intelligence analyst, deployed to eastern bagdad … if you had unprecedented access to classified networks, 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?"

For five days, Bradass87 opened his heart to Lamo. He described how his job gave him access to two secret networks: the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, SIPRNET, which carries US diplomatic and military intelligence classified "secret"; and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System which uses a different security system to carry similar material classified up to "top secret". He said this had allowed him to see "incredible things, awful things … that belong in the public domain and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC … almost criminal political backdealings … the non-PR version of world events and crises."

Bradass87 suggested that "someone I know intimately" had been downloading and compressing and encrypting all this data and uploading it to someone he identified as Julian Assange. At times, he claimed he himself had leaked the material, suggesting that he had taken in blank CDs, labelled as Lady Gaga's music, slotted them into his high-security laptop and lip-synched to nonexistent music to cover his downloading: "i want people to see the truth," he said.

He dwelled on the abundance of the disclosure: "its open diplomacy … its Climategate with a global scope and breathtaking depth … its beautiful and horrifying … It's public data, it belongs in the public domain." At one point, Bradass87 caught himself and said: "i can't believe what im confessing to you." It was too late. Unknown to him, two days into their exchange, on 23 May, Lamo had contacted the US military. On 25 May he met officers from the Pentagon's criminal investigations department in a Starbucks and gave them a printout of Bradass87's online chat.

On 26 May, at US Forward Operating Base Hammer, 25 miles outside Baghdad, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning was arrested, shipped across the border to Kuwait and locked up in a military prison.

Gathered from 92,201 records of individual events or intelligence reports, The Guardian presents a selection of 300 of the key ones.

Piecing together details from the reports, The Guardian describes the operations of an undisclosed "black" unit of special forces, Task Force 373, whose mission was to hunt down targets for death or detention without trial.

On the night of Monday 11 June 2007, the leaked logs reveal, the taskforce set out with Afghan special forces to capture or kill a Taliban commander named Qarl Ur-Rahman in a valley near Jalalabad. As they approached the target in the darkness, somebody shone a torch on them. A firefight developed, and the taskforce called in an AC-130 gunship, which strafed the area with cannon fire: "The original mission was aborted and TF 373 broke contact and returned to base. Follow-up Report: 7 x ANP KIA, 4 x WIA." In plain language: they discovered that the people they had been shooting in the dark were Afghan police officers, seven of whom were now dead and four wounded.

The coalition put out a press release which referred to the firefight and the air support and then failed entirely to record that they had just killed or wounded 11 police officers. But, evidently fearing that the truth might leak, it added: "There was nothing during the firefight to indicate the opposing force was friendly. The individuals who fired on coalition forces were not in uniform." The involvement of TF 373 was not mentioned, and the story didn't get out.

However, the incident immediately rebounded into the fragile links which other elements of the coalition had been trying to build with local communities. An internal report shows that the next day Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Phillips, commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, took senior officers to meet the provincial governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, who accepted that this was "an unfortunate incident that occurred among friends". They agreed to pay compensation to the bereaved families, and Phillips "reiterated our support to prevent these types of events from occurring again".

Yet, later that week, on Sunday 17 June, as Sherzai hosted a "shura" council at which he attempted to reassure tribal leaders about the safety of coalition operations, TF 373 launched another mission, hundreds of miles south in Paktika province. The target was a notorious Libyan fighter, Abu Laith al-Libi. The unit was armed with a new weapon, known as Himars – High Mobility Artillery Rocket System – a pod of six missiles on the back of a small truck.

The plan was to launch five rockets at targets in the village of Nangar Khel where TF 373 believed Libi was hiding and then to send in ground troops. The result was that they failed to find Libi but killed six Taliban fighters and then, when they approached the rubble of a madrasa, they found "initial assessment of 7 x NC KIA" which translates as seven non-combatants killed in action. All of them were children. One of them was still alive in the rubble: "The Med TM immediately cleared debris from the mouth and performed CPR." After 20 minutes, the child died.

The coalition made a press statement which owned up to the death of the children and claimed that troops "had surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building". That claim is consistent with the leaked log. A press release also claimed that Taliban fighters, who undoubtedly were in the compound, had used the children as a shield.

The log refers to an unnamed "elder" who is said to have "stated that the children were held against their will" but, against that, there is no suggestion that there were any Taliban in the madrasa where the children died.

The rest of the press release was certainly misleading. It suggested that coalition forces had attacked the compound because of "nefarious activity" there, when the reality was that they had gone there to kill or capture Libi.





Glossary of military acronyms


Acronym
Meaning
(number)IN Infantry group
(number)US Number of US personnel
(number)V Vehicles
(Time)L Local time
(Time)Z Zulu time - GMT
42 CDO RM 42 Commando Royal Marines
508 STB 508th special troops battalion
81 81mm mortar round
9-liner 9 Line MEDEVAC Request
A/C aircraft
AAF anti-afghan forces
ABP Afghan Border Police
AC-130 Gunship adapted from Hercules
ACK Acknowledge
ACM Anti-Coalition Militia
AFG Afghans
AH-1W Attack helicopter 1W - US Marines Super Cobra gunship
AIHRC Afghan Independent Human Right Commission
AK-47 Assault rifle
ANA Afghan National Army
ANAP Afghan National Auxiliary Police
ANBP Afghan National Border Police
ANP Afghan National Police
ANSF Afghan National Security Forces
AO Area of operation
AQ Al Qaida
ARSIC Afghan regional security integrated command
ASG Area Support Group
ASV armoured security vehicle
ATT At this time
ATTK Attack
AUP Afghan uniform police
B-HUTS Semi-permanent wooden structures used in place of tents
BAF Bagram Air Field
BCT Brigade combat team (US)
BDA Battle damage assessment
BDE Brigade
Beaten zone Area where spread of rounds fired
BFT Blue Force Tracking: identifying friendly forces in area
BG Brigadier General
Blue forces Nato/ISAF forces
Blue on Blue Friendly fire
BN Battalion
BP Blood Pressure
BPT Be [ing] prepared to
BRF Brigade Reconnaissance Force
BSN (Camp) Bastion
BSSM Border Security Subcommittee Meeting
BTG Basic target graphic
BTIF Bagram theatre internment facility
BTL Battalion
buzz saw Signalling method by waving light stick in circle
C//NF Confidential, no foreign nationals
C/S Call sign
CAS Close air support
CAT C Category C patient - priority
CCA carrier-controlled approach
CCIR commander's critical information requirements
CD Command
CDN Canadian
CDR Commander
CF Coalition Forces
CG Coldstream Guards
CGBG Coldstream Guards Battle Group
cgbg 1 coy 1 company, Coldstream Guards battle group
CHOPS Chief of Operations
CIV Civilian
CIVCAS Civilian casualties
CJ2 US intelligence and security command, afghanistan
CJ3 Joint special ops
CJSOTF combined joint special operations task force
CJTF Combined Joint Task Force
CJTF-82 Combined Joint Task Force-82: HQ of US Forces in ISAF and Regional Command East, March 2007-April 2008
CLP Combat logistics patrol [supply convoy]
CO Commanding officer
CoP Chief of Police
COP Combat outpost
Coy Company
CP Check point
cpt Captain
Csh combat support hospital
CTC ? counterterrorist center
CWIED Command Wire Improvised Explosive Device
DBC database code
DC District Centre
DF Direct fire
DOI Date of incident
DoS Department of State
DSHKA Soviet-origin heavy machine gun
ECP entry control point
EKIA Enemy killed in action
Element Part of a task force e.g. "Puma element" = part of Task Force Puma
ENG BDE Engineer Brigade
EOC Emergency Operation Centre
EOD Explosive Ordnance Disposal [bomb defuser]
eof Escalation of Force [also 'exchange of fire']
ETT embedded training team
evac Evacuation
EVACD Evacuated
F-15 Fighter /bomber
FB Forward Base (context -"Do China FB")
FF Friendly Forces
FFIR Friendly Forces Information Requirement
FIR First Impressions Report
FO Forward observer
FOB Forward Operating Base
FP Firing point
fps Facility protection service
FRA BG French battle group
FSB Forward Support Base
GBU Guided Bomb Unit
GBU-12 500lb laser-guided "smart bomb"
GBU-31 2,000lb "smart bomb'
GBU-38 GPS/laser guided 500lb 'smart' bomb
GCTF Global Counter Terrorism Forces
GEN General
GHZ Ghazni
GIRoA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
GMLRS Multiple rocket launcher
Green on green Fighting between Afghan forces
GSW Gunshot wound
GT R2RR Canadian troops: tactical group:2nd bn 22nd royal regiment
helos Helicopters
HHB Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion
HIMARS latest GPS-guided multiple rocket system, mounted on v. mobile truck [carries GMLRS qv]
HLZ helicopter landing zone
HMG UK government (HM Government)
HMLA-169 US Marines light attack helicopter sqadron
HRT hostage rescue team
HVI High-value Individual
HWY Highway
IAW In accordance with
IAW EOF SOP in accordance with escalation of force standard operating procedure
ICOM Radio
IDF indirect fire
IED Improvised explosive device
Illum Illumination mortar, fired to provide light
INFIL Infiltrate
INS Insurgents
INTSUM Intelligence summary
IO Information operations
IOT In order to
IR Incident Report
ir infrared
IR STROBE Infrared Strobe
IRoA Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
IRT Incident Response Team?
ISAF International Security Assistance Force
ISN Internment [or Insurgent] serial Number
ISO In support of
ISR Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
IVO In vicinity of
J COY 42 CDO J company 42 Commando Royal Marines
JAF Jalalabad Air Field
JAG Judge Advocate General (Army legal team)
JBAD Jalalabad
JDAM Joint Direct Attack Munition
JDCC Joint District Coordination Center
JDOC Joint Defense Operations Center
JEL Joint Effects List [hit list]
Jingle trucks Brightly decorated trucks covered in bells common across central Asia
JOC joint ops centre
JPEL Joint Prioritised Effects List [hit list]
JTAC Joint terminal air controller
JUGROOM Fort, Garmsir, Afghanistan
KAF Kandahar Air Field
KAIA Kabul international airport
KDZ Kunduz
KIA Killed in action
KJI Kajaki
KMTC Kabul military training cetnre
KPRT Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team
L: Location (in relation to S, A, L, T)
LEP Law Enforcement Professionals
Line 1 Location of the pick-up site.
Line 2 Radio frequency, call sign, and suffix.
Line 3 Number of patients by precedence: A to E with A being most urgent
Line 4 Special equipment required
Litter Stretcher used by medics
LKG Lashkar Ghar
LN Local national
LNO Liaison Officer
LTC Lieutenant Colonel
Luna German drone
LZ Landing Zone
m240b Type of machine gun
M249 light machine gun
M4/M-4 Type of gun
MAJ Major
MAR Marine
MED OPS Medical Operations
MED TM Medical Team
medevac Medical evacuation
MEY PRT Meymaneh provincial reconstruction team
MG Machine Gun
MHL Mehtar Lam
MM Military Message
MOD Ministry of Defence
MOI Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior
MP Military Police
MS Military support
MSN Nurse (with a masters)
Msr main supply route
MTF More to follow
MTT military training team
N/I C Nato/ISAF Confidential
NAI Named areas of interest
NC non-combatant
NCO Non-commissioned officer
NDS Afghan intelligence [national directorate of security]
NFI Not Further Identified
NFTR Nothing further to report
NMC non mission-capable
NOFORN no foreigners [secrecy classification]
NSTR Nothing significant to report
OBJ Objective
OC Outcome
OCC- P operational command centre - provincial
OCCD Operational Coordination Center District
ODA Operational Detachment (Alpha) - special forces
OGA Other Government Agency (usually CIA)
OIC Officer in charge
OMF Opposing Militant Forces
Op Operation
OP Observation Post
OP grid Operation/Observation post map coordinates
OPSUM Operations Summary
ORSA operations research and systems analysis
PA Physician Assistant
PAK Pakistan
PAKMIL Pakistan military
PAO Public Affairs Officer
PAX Passengers/People
PB Patrol Base
PBG Polish battle group
PEF poppy eradication force [afghan police]
PEN Penich (outpost)
PHQ Police headquarters (in reference to ANP)
PID positive i.d.
PKM Russian-made machine gun
PL Platoon
PLT Platoon
PLT SJT Platoon Seargant
PMT Police Mentor Team
PoA President of Afghanistan
poc point of contact
POI point of impact
POO Point of origin
PRED Predator drone
PRO COY protection company
PRT Provincial Reconstruction Team
PRT CDR Provincial Reconstruction Team Commander
PSO Post Security Officer
PT Patient
PTS Peace Through Strength (PTS) reconciliation process
QRF Quick Response Force
RB Road block
RC (N) Regional Command North
RC CENTRAL Regional Command Central
RC(E) / RC East Regional Command East
RC(W) Regional Command West
RC=S / RC(S) Regional Command South
RCAG Regional Corps Assistance Group
RCC / RC(C) Regional Command Capital
RCP Route clearance Patrol
rds/RDS Rounds
rfs Resident Field Squadron
RG US armoured vehicle
RGR Royal Gurkha rifles
ROE Rules of engagement
Role 3 Surgical facility
RPG Rocket propelled grenade
RPK Light machine gun, Kalashnikov (Ruchnoi Pulemyot Kalashnikova)
RPT Report
RTB Return to base
RTE Route
RTF Reconstruction Task Force [Australian at TF Uruzgan]
S-2 Intelligence staff officer
S-5 Staff member responsible for civil-military operations
S, A, L, T Size, Activity, Location, Time (military report)
S, A, L, T, U, R Size, Activity, Location, Time, Unit, Result (military report)
S: Size (in relation to S, A, L, T)
S//REL Secret or Selective release? (context - "S//REL TO USA, AFG, GCTF, ISAF, NATO")
SAF/Safire Small ams fire/Surface to air fire
SAW Squad Automatic Weapon [ machine gun]
SC-26 Scorpion 26 - US special forces unit in Helmand
SCIDA Site Configuration and Installation Design Authority?
SEWOC Sigint Electronic Warfare Operational Centre
SFG special forces group
Shura Meeting of tribal elders and Afghan leaders
SIED Suicide IED
SIGACT Significant activity
SIR Serious Incident Report
sof Special ops force
SOG Special ops group
Solatia Payments to civilian victims of US attacks (or their families)
SOP Standard Operating Procedure
SOTF Special Operations Task Force
SOTG Special ops taskgroup
SPC Specialist
SQD Squadron
sqn Squadron
Squirter Someone running for cover
SSE Sensitive site exploitation
SVBIED suicide vehicle-borne IED
SWO Surface warfare officer
SWT Scout weapons team
T: Time (in relation to S, A, L, T)
TB Taliban
TBC To be confirmed
TBD To be decided
TCP Traffic control point
TERP Interpreter
TF Task force
TF373 task force 373 [special ops]
TFK Task Force Kandahar
TG Tactical Group
TG AREs Tactical group Ares
Thready Pulse that is very fine and scarcely perceptible.
TIC Troops in contact
Toc tactical op center
TTPs tactics, techniques, and procedures
UAH Up-armoured Humvee
UAV Unmanned aerial vehicle [drone]
UH-1N US Twin Huey transport/communications helicopter
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter
UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
UNK Unknown
usfor-a United States Forces Afghanistan
UXO unexploded ordnance [or unfired]
VBIED VBIED vehicle-borne improvised explosive device
VCP Vehicle Check Point
vic vicinity
VIC Vehicle? (context - "ANP officer hit ANA officer with door of VIC...7 to 8 rounds struck ANP VIC")
vitals Vital signs (for example blood pressure)
VP Vulnerable point
VPB Vehicle patrol base
VSA vital signs absent [i.e. dead]
w/d wheels down
w/u wheels up
White Eagle Polish task force
RC EAST: 172100Z TF 373 OBJ Lane




NOTE: The following information (TF-373 and HIMARS) is Classified Secret / NOFORN. The knowledge that TF-373 conducted a HIMARS strike must be kept protected ...
Affiliation FRIEND
Type Friendly Action
Category Other
Date 2007-06-17 21:09

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