TIME: How the U.S. Killed
the Wrong Afghans
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
By MICHAEL WARE / URUZGAN
Uruzgan nestles in a pristine valley ringed by
snow-capped peaks that form a natural fortress in the
mountains north of Kandahar. Its orchards climb
peacefully to the snowline, a spectacle of pastoral
tranquility that belies the village's emergence as
the site of the largest U.S. ground operation of the
Afghan conflict — and the most tragic.
Once a Taliban stronghold, the area today is
tentatively controlled by forces loyal to the new
government in Kabul. On Jan. 23, a military
commission sent by the governor had been gathering
Taliban weapons at the village's meager Sharzam High
School, anticipating the imminent surrender of three
senior Taliban commanders holding out in the
mountains. But it was not the Taliban that came, in
the early hours of the following morning.
Hamdullah, an anti-Taliban militiaman was woken at
2am for his shift on guard duty that day. Around him
all was still, the compound asleep. Helicopters
buzzed overhead, but that didn't much perturb the
sentry — their sound had filled Uruzgan's night sky
for the past two weeks. Then came an explosion, "not
like any that I have heard before, not a rocket or a
grenade", he says. He could make out only a strange
vehicle, and a dot of red light that disappeared as
quickly as it had appeared. He rushed back to alert
the others, before diving into a ditch, where he
cowered for ten minutes, listening as his friends
were shot. "I could hear them crying, 'Allah help
me,' " he says, "They were saying, 'For the love of
Allah do not kill us.' " According to one translation
of Hamdullah's account, he claims to have heard the
men plead, "We surrender."
Hamdullah was the only survivor left behind in the
school grounds that night. Villagers say two wounded
were taken to hospital in distant Tarin Kowt. Among
the dead were two men with their hands tied behind
their backs. The narrow plastic zip ties bore the
markings: "US Pat. No. 5651376. Other Pat. Pending".
U.S. special forces had a busy night on Jan. 24. A
mile away, they attacked a second Uruzgan compound,
which had been seized by rogue warlord Mohammed
Yousif — a challenger for the title of district
chief. At 2am helicopters landed nearby and soldiers
stormed his perimeter. "A great noise woke me up,"
says the steely Yousif, "and when I got out of my
room I could see Americans." He claims he ordered his
men not to open fire, but "when I knew they were
going to kill us and bombard, I escaped." Yousif and
a small coterie of aides evaded the Americans. But
two of his men were killed, and 27 others were taken
prisoner. On the windshield of one of Yousif's
bullet-riddled pickups, the Americans left a calling
card: a leaflet bearing the Stars and Stripes and the
words "God Bless America." In a corner, someone had
scrawled: "Have a nice day. From, Damage Inc."
"A terrible mistake has been made," says Uruzgan
businessman Abdul Ghani. All the dead, including the
twin leaders of the military commission Haji Sanagul
and Qadous Khan Jahadwal, had been appointed by the
provincial government. "They were not Taliban, they
were a military commission working with (Interim
Prime Minister) Hamid Karzai," says schoolteacher and
Uruzgan elder Farou Khan. The men slaughtered in
Sharzam High School had been loyal to Hamid Karzai's
interim government. Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali
Karzai, says he knew six or seven of them personally.
Qadous Khan Jahadwal, he says, "had been with us for
23 years."
Provincial governor Jan Mohammed Khan asked the U.S.
officers why the school had been attacked, only to be
told, "We don't know who bombed them". A senior
member of the Kandahar shura (governing council)
loyal to the new government in Kabul says he met with
U.S. military officials at their airbase last week.
"They acknowledged there had been a mistake," he
says.
It's not hard to see how the largest ground operation
by U.S. forces in Afghanistan may may have turned
into a friendly-fire tragedy. All of Uruzgan province
had been strong Taliban country. And Uruzgan village
was a Taliban nursery — hundreds, if not thousands,
of Taliban soldiers volunteered from this district
(though villagers claim all were forcibly
conscripted). Even now, unrepentant Taliban
commanders and their troops have returned to seek
refuge in its remote mountain passes.
And, like in many other regions in today's
post-Taliban Afghanistan, the local political
infighting often intersects with charges and
counter-charges of Talib connections. Take warlord
Mohammed Younis, for example. "He was saying he was
chief of this district, he was saying this district
is mine. He wanted to take it by force," says Uruzgan
shura chairman Haji Sofi Mohammed Halim. Days before
the U.S. attack, Younis had lost out in acrimonious
local power struggle. But it may have been his
possible links to very senior Taliban leaders that
help explain the events at Uruzgan.
A mujahedin commander against the Soviets, Younis had
not been forced to flee, or fight, during the Taliban
regime. "During the Taliban, he was at home, he was
friends with the Talibs," says elder Farou Khan.
Younis even give large numbers of fighters to the
fanatical Islamic government. But, as Abdul Rauf's
son tries to explain, "this was compulsory of every
landlord". However this warlord did more than lend
his soldiers; he allowed his son Mullah Ahmadullah to
join the Taliban.
Ahmadullah was close to Taliban Health Minister
Mohammed Abbas Akhund, a founding member of the
movement who hailed from Uruzgan province. A former
mayor of Kandahar and later Attorney General, Abbas
commanded the Taliban's Baghlan force. Now, says the
secretary to Kandahar's new pro-American governor,
Abbas is hiding with his military force about 5 miles
from Uruzgan village. And at least three other top
Taliban are reputed to be sheltering in mountains
near the site of the U.S. attacks.
The raid on Uruzgan appears, ironically, to have
helped Younis. A rogue warlord with strong links to
the Taliban and opponent of the new government in
Kabul, he saw his local opposition wiped out by U.S.
forces — and appears to have inherited the most
formidable arsenal in the district, to boot. Says
Bari Gul, brother of one of the pro-government
commanders slain in the raid, "All the weapons
(collected at the school) have been taken by the
commander who was ruling by force".
A Pentagon investigation into the incident continues,
although Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on Monday
conceded that the U.S. may well have killed our
wounded friendly fighters in the Uruzgan raid. Part
of the problem may be the conflicting signals
emanating from the complex power struggles between
rival factions on the ground. "I blame Afghans for
that myself," says Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of the
acting president. "It was an Afghan mistake. It
shouldn't happen in the future." Karzai adds he has
been "assured" there will not be a repeat, but
delicately refuses to say who gave him this comfort.
The clinical ruthlessness of the attack on Uruzgan
has left a bitter taste among the locals. "None of
our friends fired on the Americans because they were
all asleep," says Bari Gul. One Uruzgan elder told
TIME, "The U.S. must be punished for what they did in
this room, what they did in this place". The bloody
events at Uruzgan village may prove to be a tragic
mistake, but they may also reverberate more widely in
southern Afghanistan. Even guards and translators
accompanying TIME's reporter in the village walked
away muttering anti-American sentiments.