Warning
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This video and article may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
By Clancy Chassay
ICH
December 16, 2008 “The Guardian”
In the second of our series of dispatches from the ravaged country, Afghans explain how mounting civilian casualties are aiding Taliban recruiting
It was 7.30 on a hot July morning when the plane came swooping low over the remote ravine. Below, a bridal party was making its way to the groom’s village in an area called Kamala, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, to prepare for the celebrations later that day.
The first bomb hit a large group of children who had run on ahead of the main procession. It killed most of them instantly.
A few minutes later, the plane returned and dropped another bomb, right in the centre of the group. This time the victims were almost all women. Somehow the bride and two girls survived but as they scrambled down the hillside, desperately trying to get away from the plane, a third bomb caught them. Hajj Khan was one of four elderly men escorting the bride’s party that day.
“We were walking, I was holding my grandson’s hand, then there was a loud noise and everything went white. When I opened my eyes, everybody was screaming. I was lying metres from where I had been, I was still holding my grandson’s hand but the rest of him was gone. I looked around and saw pieces of bodies everywhere. I couldn’t make out which part was which.”
Relatives from the groom’s village said it was impossible to identify the remains. They buried the 47 victims in 28 graves.
via ‘I was still holding my grandson’s hand – the rest was gone’ Information Clearing House – ICH. plus video report
see
A Million McVeighs Now: The American-Made Insurgency in Afghanistan by Chris Floyd
Kinzer: Surge Afghanistan Diplomacy, Not Troops
Ray McGovern: Will Afghanistan be Obama’s Vietnam?
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No words.
I have tears and very deep sadness. The indiscriminate massacre of innocent people who at the time were only attempting to have some joy in their lives makes me ill. There have been many wedding party massacres. If something like this happened here, we would never hear the end of it. But as long as it happens somewhere else, no one cares (but a few of us). It makes me want to scream: people are people everywhere on Earth, they laugh, and cry, and sing and want to live just like all of us. Why do we kill ordinary people? Why is there no punishment for this outright murder of innocents?