The way the United States tells it, launching devastating airstrikes on drug-making labs across western Afghanistan is needed to staunch a harmful trade that funds the Taliban’s rebellion against a weak central government.

Think again, says the United Nations. A study released this week says the Taliban only raises a small amount of cash from the drug trade, and US airstrikes on narcotics labs kill more innocent civilians than they do militants.

The alarming, 21-page report found that a blitz of American strikes on May 5 killed or wounded at least 39 civilians, including 14 children, and broke international humanitarian rules as the victims were factory workers and civilians – not fighters.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, UN spokesman Farhan Haq described carnage after US forces hit 60 “alleged drug-processing facilities” in and around the remote Bakwa district of Farah province in western Afghanistan.

The UN is investigating “credible reports” of a further 37 civilian casualties, mostly women and children, said Haq. The “report concludes that drug facilities and associated workers may not be lawfully made the target of attacks and should be protected,” he added.

Researchers from the UN mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, spent four months probing the incident, including face-to-face interviews with those affected to assess claims that US forces also hit homes, shops, a fuel station and vehicles.

Drug labs in Bakwa district were run by local crooks with connections to international narcotics dealers and were not operated exclusively by the Taliban, UNAMA said. As such, the labs were not “legitimate military objectives”.

While the folks working in the drug labs were engaged in “illicit drug activity”, they were not enemy combatants, UNAMA said. Like the women and children also killed in the strikes, the workers deserved protection.

“While the report fully acknowledges that the illicit drug industry in Afghanistan causes extensive harm to the civilian population in the country and beyond, it concludes that the appropriate – and legal – response to illicit drug activity is through law enforcement, not military, operations,” the report said.

The US has long sought to wipe out Afghanistan’s poppy-growing fields, heroin production centers and, more recently, the methamphetamine labs that have sprung up in the west to mass-produce the highly addictive stimulant.

The US says intelligence reports show that drug labs are run exclusively by the Taliban to fund a conflict that has ravaged Afghanistan since the US invaded soon after the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

As such, drug labs are a legitimate military target because they finance the war, the Pentagon says.

US forces “took extraordinary measures to avoid the deaths or injuries of non-combatants” in the May 5 attacks, US military spokesman Col Sonny Leggett said via Twitter in response to the UN report.

Col Leggett was “deeply concerned by UNAMA’s methods and findings” because the world body’s researchers had relied on “sources with limited information, conflicted motives and violent agendas” who “are not credible.”

The US is “fighting in a complex environment against those who intentionally kill and hide behind civilians, as well as use dishonest claims of non-combatant casualties as propaganda weapons,” Col Leggett added.

Afghanistan, long a center for opium production, has witnessed a boom in methamphetamine drug production these past five years, according to a report in August from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Annual seizures of the drug were no more than a few kilos earlier in the decade, but reached 180kg in 2018 and went “off the scale” with 650kg of seizures in the first half of 2019, the UN says.

Taliban insurgents, who were already fuelling their insurgency with tens of millions of dollars annually from opium, are now understood to be taxing meth-making gangs in the barren western regions.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks, to topple the Taliban. The hardliners regrouped and have waged a fierce insurgency for years against the government, US forces and other Western allies in Afghanistan.

The Taliban control more of Afghanistan than at any time since its regime was toppled in 2001, and government security forces are struggling to contain the militants even as negotiators have been hammering out a peace deal in the Gulf state of Qatar.

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Six days of unrest have left over 100 people dead and thousands injured, as protests and violence have raged with the ongoing Iraqi conflict. On Sunday, 12 anti-government demonstrators were killed in the capital, Baghdad, with seemingly no end in sight.

Interior Ministry Spokesman, Major General Saad Maan, said on state TV that 104 people – which included 8 security force members – had died and over 6,100 were wounded during the past week of fighting. He claimed that “malicious hands” were behind targeting both protesters and security members, yet witnesses at the scene said that they saw security forces shooting at the groups of protestors.

The protests, which started last Tuesday in Baghdad, initially began peacefully but were further ignited by social media with demands for the authorities to address political corruption and the worrying decline of Iraq’s previously oil-rich economy. With thousands congregating, the gatherings soon became violent, with reports that security personnel released teargas and live rounds of ammunition into the crowds.

Yet, in a dramatic turn of events, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, for the first time admitted on Monday that the authorities had used excessive force in their measures to placate the masses. According to the WSJ, in an attempt to prevent revenge killings against the military, the Iraqi government has recognised those killed in the protests as martyrs – a legal designation that gives their families compensation. The government is also assisting those injured, and in some instances, flying them to other countries for medical care. It is also hoped that this new move might avert attention from the continuing fight against any remnants of Islamic State since the group’s collapse in Iraq in 2017.

The paper further claimed that on Monday, leaders announced that they would stop the use of deadly force against protesters and promised new social assistance in an effort to quell the mobs and violence. Iraqi authorities stated that there would be a 4.5 trillion ($3.7 billion) program to help families and unemployed people, which comes as a response to the public’s demands for better welfare and job opportunities. Yet, economists have argued that such pledges could simply exacerbate the social issues, which began because of erratic high spending, low non-oil economic growth, and government corruption.

Last year, the government had promised to find a solution to these issues, yet little has since been done. After coming to power in 2018, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, has continued to create a divide between the elite and ordinary classes and by some accounts, appeared to be even more driven by political class when compared to previous leaders.

The Iraqi people are not just demanding the removal of a government that has continuously not served their best interest, but insisting for a change to a political system that has existed since Saddam Hussein’s rule ended in 2003. It has been one that paved the way for leaders to abuse public funds for their own personal wealth and merits, instead of siphoning it into the general public, who desperately need it.

Meanwhile, across the border in Iran, the riots were closely monitored and regarded as a plot to further complicate the strained relationship between the two countries. Since the war between both nations from 1980 to 1988, Iran’s clout in Iraq has increased after Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

“Enemies seek to sow discord but they’ve failed & their conspiracy won’t be effective,” wrote Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on his office’s Twitter account. “Iran and Iraq are two nations whose hearts & souls are tied together…This bond will grow stronger day by day.”

By Monday evening, the streets of Baghdad were a little more subdued with a smattering of protestors who remained – burning tyres and demanding that those responsible for the weekend’s killings be handed over. There is uncertainty about what lies ahead for the troubled oil-rich country, with some being hopeful about the government’s latest promises. Outside the capital, Iraqis have agreed to postpone further protests until Oct. 20 – a religious holiday held in memory of the death of Hussein who was revered by Shia Muslims.

L'articolo Iraqi Unrest Continues As Over 100 Dead and Thousands Wounded proviene da InsideOver.

Collateral damage is a tragic inevitably of any war, but when military attacks go awry and kill only civilians without striking intended enemy militants, it opens up the door for a broad range of questions. Such an unfortunate situation happened recently when over 30 pine nut farmers were killed by a Central Intelligence Agency drone in Afghanistan. The Sept. 19 attack shocked the Middle Eastern nation. While it is no stranger to war, an American attack on civilians far removed from terrorist targets is unusual. 

Innocent farmers

American drones struck as night began to fall in the eastern province of Nangarhar. In addition to the fatalities, US drones also injured 40 other workers.

“The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them,” tribal elder Malik Rahat Gul told Reuters. 

The attack at Wazir Tangi was intended to destroy a Daesh hideout. Details on how it ended up striking pine nut farmers instead have not yet been revealed and perhaps never will. Residents voiced their anger at the attack by calling for an apology and financial reimbursement from Washington. 

“Such mistakes cannot be justified. American forces must realize (they) will never win the war by killing innocent civilians,” said Javed Mansur, a resident of Jalalabad city where victims were buried the following morning. 

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan are on course for a record high this year. The United Nations estimated that for the first half of the year, there were 1,366 deaths and 2,446 injured, putting the year on pace to exceed the previous three years, each of which tallied more than 5,000 victims. To be clear, the UN records civilian victims from all sources, including terrorist groups such as Daesh as well as established militaries such as America and its allies. However, the drone strike on the farmers cast America in a bad light as US President Donald Trump continues to expand the US drone program while simultaneously reducing its accountability to the American public. 

Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. drastically amplified its drone usage. During his first year in office, he directed the CIA and Pentagon to launch more drones than his predecessor did in 16 years— 53 strikes in Pakistan. After expanding the drone usage to Yemen and Syria, Obama too incurred the wrath of negative press over civilian deaths. Because of this, only three strikes were carried out in Pakistan during the final year of his presidency. 

Under Trump, there were 100 in Yemen alone during 2017, up from Obama’s 44 for the state in the previous year. Furthermore, while his predecessors focused drone strikes on al-Qaeda fighters, Trump’s military is targeting any militants opposing the Afghan government. 

Into Africa

While all branches of the American military use drones to some extent, it is the CIA which has received renewed focus under Trump, and not just in the Middle East, but Africa too. In Nigeria, officials said American drones have been using the Dirkou airport as a makeshift base for launching strikes in Libya. Maj. Sheryll Klinkel, a Defense Department spokeswoman, denied U.S drones operate out of Dirkou, despite a New York Times reporter witnessing them take off and land. 

The CIA also opened a $110 million base in Agadez, Niger which began operations at the beginning of the year. Drones from the bases in Niger are also used in Somalia to strike al-Shabaab terrorists. Between the CIA and Pentagon, 30 raids were carried out in 2017. 

When Trump came to office, he not only ramped up the drone strikes, but also removed some of their civilian casualty accountability as well, undoing a piece of Obama’s legacy. When Obama came under fire for collateral damage, he instituted several measures to bring order to how strikes were carried out, which included greater coordination between military intelligence and the CIA.  A single database was shared between them to analyze target and evaluate their threat levels. 

Also, he created what became known as the Presidential Policy Guidance. This manual specified that if a strike were to be carried out in area outside of a war zone, the president’s entire cabinet must agree to it and, importantly, there should be “near certainty” that civilians will not become caught in the crossfire.

No accountability

Under Trump, those measures are most-certainly expelled as remnants of an era he seeks to undo. Had the rules been authored by George W. Bush, a Republican president, perhaps Trump would have been willing to abide by them. 

Critically, Trump revoked an Obama executive order mandating the CIA to report on civilian casualties outside of war zones. According to a Nations Security council spokesman, the action removes “superfluous reporting requirements that do not improve government transparency, but rather distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission.” While it’s true that the National Defense Authorization Act requires the White House to submit an annual report on civilian casualties, this information is limited to the common war zone areas, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Furthermore, the NDAA does not apply to the CIA as did the Obama-era executive order. Consequently, a CIA attack in Africa would not make the report given to Congress. 

The removal of CIA reporting requirements comes at a time when the White House is increasing its reliance on unmanned aerial vehicles. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimated that there have been 2,243 drone strikes in the first two years of Trump’s tenure. By comparison, there were only 1,878 in Obama’s entire eight-year administration. With the recent killing of innocent Afghan farmers and the aggressive CIA rollout in Africa, perhaps there should be more reporting instead of less.

L'articolo Trump Expands CIA Drone Strikes While Reducing Accountability proviene da InsideOver.