| Twelve-month-old HAMEED ULLAHA has shrapnel burns on his neck and face from American. missiles that destroyed his village near Kandahar on Oct. 24, 2001. His mother, Radigul, almost lost an arm. She did lose her four other children. Hameed's brothers and sisters were all killed by the savage hit on a residential area of no military significance. An estimated 25 civilians died. |
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| U.S. planes hit two homes in northern Kabul on Oct. 21 killing at least eight civilians, including four children and three women. "This pilot was like he was blind. There are no military bases here - only innocent people," said one resident, Haziz Ullah. |
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| A Red Cross food warehouse burns on Oct.26, 2001 after
being bombed for a second time by U.S. planes. The
"mistake" seemed to result from the same
"intelligence" problem that caused the bombing of the Chinese
Embassy. At least the Chinese Embassy was only bombed once.
Warplanes actually struck six Red Cross warehouses in Kabul--two of them for a second time in less than 10 days--and dropped a 500-pound bomb on a nearby residential area. "The US sincerely regrets this inadvertent strike on the ICRC warehouses and the residential area," the command said. July 1, 2002. American "accident" kills 120 Afghans attending a wedding. |
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| GRIEF: A father weeps over his dead son after yet another bombing blunder in Kabul |
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At right, the shattered home in the village of Arokey of Ko Ko Gul, a 30-year-old mother of three. Ko Ko was sitting in her home sewing on an autumn afternoon when a US fighter pilot dropped a 1,000 lb. bomb onto her home. Ko Ko heard the bomb coming and instinctively threw herself on top of her four-year-old son Lahi. Miraculously, Lahi had only minor wounds, but his mother died instantly. Ko Ko's loss was bitterly mourned. Her brother-in-law said: "She was a lovely woman. My brother loved her dearly. They had a good life together. She was pretty, and hard-working, she had a good word for everybody. Nobody disliked her." For a follow-up story on Ko Ko's family, please see James Meek's "Bomb the Enemy, Not Us." |
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It is still early morning as a family
pick over the destruction of their home. On Wednesday night, November 7,
2001, during heavy bombing part of their home was left in ruins
when a missile tore through the roof.
A couple married two months ago were killed as they slept. An uncle of the family wonders why ordinary Afghans are having to bear such an ordeal. "Is it because our blood is worth less than American and British blood?" he asks. A seven-year-old boy maimed in the same bombing raid is expected to lose his sight. |
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| Refugee camp in Peshawar. Safe from American bombs. |
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| Next? If the President's war-hungry advisors have their way, bombs will soon once again be falling on our favorite demon, Iraq. And once again it will be Iraqi families like the one in the picture who are crushed and burned to death by the bombs, not Saddam Hussein. |
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