NEW YORK, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – US forces have killed dozens of Afghan civilians in air strikes and night-time raids that have not been properly investigated, Amnesty International rights group said in a new study published on Monday.
“Thousands of Afghans have been killed or injured by US forces since the invasion, but the victims and their families have little chance of redress. The US military justice system almost always fails to hold its soldiers accountable for unlawful killings,” Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director Richard Bennett said.
“None of the cases that we looked into – involving more than 140 civilian deaths – were prosecuted by the US military. Evidence of possible war crimes and unlawful killings has seemingly been ignored,” he said.
The 84-page study, called Left in the Dark, gathered accounts from 125 eye-witnesses of 10 incidents between 2009 and 2013, in which at least 140 civilians died during US military strikes, including pregnant women and more than 50 children.
Amnesty International urged the US military to launch a probe into the deaths and release data about the raids. The rights group also urged Afghan officials to launch their own investigations.
US forces have fought a multibillion dollar Afghan campaign since 2001 and are set to almost completely pull out by the end of 2014.
