Official report on air strike in Afghanistan shows early reports were false.

The article below is a thorough analysis of the executive summary of a Pentagon report on three airstrikes in Afghanistan on May 4 that killed numerous civilians.

The original reports blamed the Taliban for the civilian deaths claiming that they herded people into compounds and would not let them out, in effect using them as human shields. The earlier reports also claimed that many Taliban had been killed in the aristrikes. However the official report indicates that although there were many Taliban killed it was not in the airstrikes but in the ground battle. Two of the three airstrikes were based on intelligence that confused movement of civilians with movement of the Taliban and probably no Taliban were killed in those strikes only civilians.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KF27Df01.html

Pentagon 'rewrites' airstrike atrocity
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - The version of the official military investigation into the disastrous May 4 airstrike in Farah province made public last week by the Central Command was carefully edited to save the United States command in Afghanistan the embarrassment of having to admit that earlier claims blaming the massive civilian deaths on the "Taliban" were fraudulent.

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