Granai airstrike explained

Conflict:Granai airstrike
Partof:the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Date:May 4, 2009
Place:Granai, Bala Buluk District, Farah Province, Afghanistan
Coordinates:32.6219°N 62.435°W
Map Type:Afghanistan
Map Relief:1
Casualties3:Estimate: 86–147 killed, mostly women and children

The Granai airstrike, sometimes called the Granai massacre, refers to the killing of approximately 86 to 147 Afghan civilians by an airstrike by a US Air Force B-1 Bomber on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai (also Romanized Garani, Gerani, Granay)[1] in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan.[2] [3] [4]

The United States admitted significant errors were made in carrying out the airstrike, stating "the inability to discern the presence of civilians and avoid and/or minimize accompanying collateral damage resulted in the unintended consequence of civilian casualties".[5] [6] [7]

The Afghan government said that around 140 civilians were killed, of whom 22 were adult males and 93 were children.[8] [9] Afghanistan's top rights body has said 97 civilians were killed, most of them children. Other estimates range from 86 to 147 civilians killed.[10] An earlier probe by the US military had said that 20–30 civilians were killed along with 60–65 insurgents. A partially released American inquiry stated "no one will ever be able conclusively to determine the number of civilian casualties that occurred". The Australian had said that the airstrike resulted in "one of the highest civilian death tolls from Western military action since foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001".[11]

Airstrike video

A Combat Camera video of the airstrike was made by the bomber aircraft involved. When the Pentagon investigation on the incident was released in 2009, it did not include the video.[12]

By May 2010, WikiLeaks had an encrypted copy of the video it had received from then U.S. Army Specialist Chelsea Manning and was attempting to decrypt it.[13] [14] [15] In a March 2013 statement, Julian Assange disputed prior news reports claiming WikiLeaks had been unable to decrypt the file and alleged that the video "documented a massacre, a war crime."[16]

Assange said WikiLeaks no longer had the video due to former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg deleting it and other files when he left WikiLeaks in September 2010 and a Swedish Intelligence operation conducted in September 2010 in which other copies of the video were also lost.[17] [18]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hollow Excuses. September 12, 2009. Afghanistan Analysts Network - English.
  2. News: Whistleblowers on US 'massacre' fear CIA stalkers . Matthew . Campbell . . 11 April 2010 . 21 May 2010 . London.
  3. News: Carlotta . Gall . Carlotta Gall . Taimoor . Shah . Afghan Villagers Describe Chaos of U.S. Strikes newspaper . . 14 May 2009 . 21 May 2010.
  4. News: Jon . Boone . Ewen . MacAskill . Mark . Tran . US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians . The Guardian . 6 May 2009 . 21 May 2010 . London.
  5. News: Wikileaks 'to release video of US strike on Afghan civilians' . Ben . Farmer . . 11 April 2010 . 21 May 2010 . London.
  6. News: Mark . Tran . US military admits errors in air strikes that killed scores of Afghan civilians . The Guardian . 3 June 2009 . 21 May 2010 . London.
  7. News: Eric P . Schmitt . Eric P. Schmitt . Thom . Shanker. US Report Finds Errors in Afghan Airstrikes . . 2 June 2009 . 21 May 2010.
  8. News: Dan . de Luce . We failed to follow bombing rules: Pentagon . . 8 June 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100810003158/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gYi4IDEtmbbgYaWKYw2vJ1kl2IEA . dead . August 10, 2010 . 21 May 2010.
  9. News: Hamid . Shalizi. Peter . Graff. U.S. strikes killed 140 villagers: Afghan probe . . 16 May 2009 . 21 May 2010.
  10. News: Hail to the whistleblowers . London . The Guardian . 23 June 2010 . James . Denselow.
  11. News: 'More than 100' die in US-led air strike in Afghanistan . . 6 May 2009 . 21 May 2010.
  12. News: Dan . de Luce . US military debates release of Afghan air strike probe . . 18 June 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100810003201/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iHR81hAa4Ww2mp2_gWIG8PAHnvnA . dead . August 10, 2010 . 21 May 2010.
  13. News: Chris McGreal . Chris . McGreal . WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US Afghan attack . The Guardian . 16 June 2010 . 21 June 2010 . London.
  14. News: U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe . Kevin Poulsen . Kevin . Poulsen . Kim Zetter . Kim . Zetter . . 6 June 2010 . 15 June 2010.
  15. News: Soldier Admits Providing Files to WikiLeaks . Charlie Savage (author) . Charlie . Savage . The New York Times. 1 March 2013. 13 June 2013.
  16. Web site: . WikiLeaks has more US secrets, Assange says. March 5, 2013. The Age. March 5, 2013. 2013-03-05.
  17. Web site: Assange. Julian (Verified User: _JulianAssange). I am Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks -- Ask Me Anything. Reddit. 10 January 2017 . 12 January 2017.
  18. Web site: Assange . Julian . Affidavit of Julian Assange .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Granai airstrike".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.