The 90 Afghan Villagers Killed Victim of Tribal Rivalry

Tribal rivalry caused 90 civilian deaths: Afghan govt

Monday, September 15, 2008

KABUL: An American military operation that killed up to 90 civilians was based on false information provided by a rival tribe and did not kill "a single Taliban," the president's spokesman said Sunday.

Afghan police arrested three suspects accused of giving the US military false information that led to the bombardment of the village of Azizabad, the Afghan Interior Ministry has announced. "There was total misinformation fed to the coalition forces," Humayun Hamidzada, the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, told The Associated Press.

The August 22 bombing caused a strain on the US-Afghan relationship, Hamidzada said. An Afghan government commission found that up to 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, a finding backed by a preliminary UN report.

The operation, conducted by US Special Forces and Afghan soldiers, hit Afghan employees of a British security firm and their family members -- the reason the military recovered guns during the operation, Hamidzada said.

The US has said the raid targeted and killed a known militant commander named Mullah Sidiq, but villagers of Azizabad say their homes were targeted because of false information provided by a rival tribesman named Nader Tawakil.

An Afghan parliamentarian has said Tawakil is in the protective custody of US forces while the coalition has declined to comment. "How the information was gathered, how it was misfed, and their personal animosity led to trying to use the international forces for their own political disputes, which led to a disastrous event and caused a strain on the relationship of the Afghan government and international forces," Hamidzada said.