Afghanistan's Mounting Civilian Toll

With the Taliban once again on the upswing, the war in Afghanistan is seeing more and more civilians in the crossfire. The government in Kabul has acknowledged a botched military operation in June that saw more than 50 civilians killed in the Chora district of Uruzgan province in the southern part of the country. That province, a Taliban stronghold, has experienced raids with tragic civilian casualties in the past. On Sept. 27, another one apparently took place.

On that day, Assadullah, a farmer, was visiting friends in a neighboring village when he heard the bombs. Racing home to see if his huge extended family was safe, he found his house flattened. Digging desperately through the rubble he uncovered the bodies of his 15 nephews and nieces, still in their beds, heads on their pillows. "When I saw they were not alive, I thought the whole world had died," he says. "I had a strong pain in my heart. I thought, 'Why am alive?'"

The attack cost Assadullah 20 members of his family. As well as his nephews and nieces, aged from six months to 17 years, he lost his mother, his two brothers and their wives. In two other nearby villages in the Kakrak area, some 360 km. southwest of Kabul, dozens more were killed, many of them children. Assadullah says the final death toll was 67, with many more injured.

What happened that night has been barely mentioned by the Afghan government. But there has been official acknowledgement: on Nov. 17, Assadullan and other villagers received discreet payouts as compensation for their loss after a meeting between an Uruzgan delegation and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Dutch Ambassador Hans Blankenberg, and representatives of the U.S. military.

A spokesman for the Dutch military, whose 1,600 troops lead the International Security and Assistance Force's Provincial Reconstruction Team responsible for security in Uruzgan, says he believes the operation had involved a U.S. aircraft and Afghan Army soldiers, but he was still awaiting confirmation from an after-action report due to be completed by the officer in charge of Southern Command this week.

On Nov. 20, President Karzai's spokesman Humayun Hamidzada confirmed to TIME that compensation had been paid during the meeting, but declined to reveal how many people had been killed in the raids or how many families had received compensation. He says Karzai expressed his sorrow to the delegation, but without admitting the government was responsible. "Civilian casualties have dropped in the last four months, but sometimes these things happen," says Hamidzada. "The government is in close contact with NATO and this has produced good results."

Politicians and tribal leaders told TIME that the families of 49 victims of the raids received compensation: 100,000 Afghanis (about $2,000) for a dead relative and 50,000 Afghanis ($1,000) for those who were injured. Uruzgan elder Ghulam Farooq, who attended the meeting with Karzai and the Western officials, says some of those killed in another village heard the bombing and ran into a mosque for shelter. "Bombs fell on the mosque. Eighteen people were killed," he says. "There were children and women."

Assadullah says he and his neighbors had no warning that any operation was imminent in their region. He thinks the bombing may have been sparked when a family became frightened after seeing army patrols and moved into the house next to his in the village, arousing the soldiers' suspicion. He says that house was bombed. Other villages where families moved in with each other were also bombed, said residents of the area.

"There was no Taliban around at the time," Assadullah says. "The Taliban did not even get a bleeding nose that night." Despite his loss, Assadullah says if the ISAF helps to rebuild the villages and stops bombing and shelling, then the villagers might continue to support their efforts. But he adds an ominous warning: "If nothing changes for the good, our people must join the Taliban." With reporting by Muhib Habibi