Nato accused of cover up over killing of pregnant women

Published on Friday 12 March 2010 21:57

THE survivors of a night raid in eastern Afghanistan in which five people, including two pregnant women, died have accused Nato of trying to cover up the atrocity.

In a statement issued after the raid last month, it was claimed Nato staff found the women's bodies "tied up, gagged and killed", and hidden in a room. The statement was headed: "Joint force operating in Gardez makes gruesome discovery".

However, more than a dozen survivors, local officials, police chiefs and a religious leader interviewed at and around the scene of the attack maintain the women were killed by the same unknown US and Afghan gunmen who killed two male relatives and another woman during a botched pre-dawn assault on a policeman's compound a few miles outside Gardez, the capital of Paktia province.

The operation, in the early hours of 12 February, came more than a fortnight after the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan issued strict new guidelines designed to limit the use of night raids.

Special Forces and western intelligence agencies who operate covert paramilitary forces in Afghanistan have been criticised for launching night raids on dubious or false intelligence, often leading to civilian casualties.

The men killed in the raid were Commander Dawood Sharbubbin, 43, a long-serving policeman recently promoted to head of intelligence in one of Paktia's most volatile districts, and his brother, Saranwal Zahir, a district attorney in Ahmadabad district. Dawood was killed in a doorway while trying to protest their innocence.

Three women crouched behind him were hit by the same volley. Bibi Shirin, 22, had four children under the age of five. Bibi Saleha, 37, had 11 children. According to relatives, both were pregnant and were killed instantly. The third woman, Gulalai, 18, was engaged to be married. She later died of her injuries.

Although the pregnancy claims were impossible to verify, the reports were supported by the head of Paktia's influential Religious Council, Maulavi Mohammed Khaliqdad Haqqani.

All five bodies were brought to the main mosque in Gardez for prayers, before they were buried.

The family say Dawood and Gulalai might have survived if relatives had been allowed to drive them to a nearby hospital.

Nato said the soldiers were part of a joint "Afghan-international" force, but despite rules requiring raiders to leave leaflets identifying their unit, the family said they left nothing. US troops stationed locally denied involvement. Troops are supposed to inform local authorities before they strike.

"Nobody informed us," said deputy provincial governor Abdul Rahman Mangal. "This operation was a mistake."

Dawood and Zahir's youngest brother, Mohammed Sabir, 26, was in the hallway when his wife was killed. With his nephew Izzat and the two dead men's wives, they began shrouding the bodies. Sabir said they tied the feet together in accordance with custom, and tied scarves under their chins to keep their mouths shut.

Nato's director of communications in Kabul, Rear Admiral Greg Smith, last night denied there was a cover-up. He said the men killed were armed and showing "hostile intent", but admitted "they were not the targets of this raid".

He said the statement was poorly worded and confirmed the "gags" were in fact funeral preparations, but insisted the women appeared to have been dead for "several hours".