WASHINGTON AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The U.S. is jeopardizing its chances of success in Afghanistan by mistakenly inflicting casualties on civilians in airstrikes that undermine support for the war among the general population, the top U.S. military officer said Monday.
Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited the aerial bombing this month of a village in western Afghanistan that killed an undetermined number of civilians as one that has occurred despite changes in procedures aimed at reducing such deaths.
"We cannot succeed in Afghanistan, or anywhere else -- but let's talk specifically about Afghanistan -- by killing Afghan civilians," Mullen told experts and scholars at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "We can't keep going through incidents like this and expect the strategy to work."
Military officials are investigating the May 4 airstrike in Afghanistan's Farah province, which Afghan officials said killed 140 civilians, a figure disputed by the Pentagon.
As Mullen spoke, new details emerged in Kabul about the strike, which has prompted widespread criticism in Afghanistan.
U.S. warplanes carried out a wave of attacks in support of Afghan and American ground forces in and around the village of Garani over a six-hour period in the late afternoon and evening, said Army Col. Gregory Julian, chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The firepower included two 2,000-pound bombs dropped by a B-1 bomber.
Other bombs dropped in eight runs between 3 and 9 p.m. included 500-pound GBU-12s and GBU-38s.
The description represented the most detailed U.S. military account to date of fighting in and near the village.
The bombardment came on a day of heavy fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan troops backed by U.S. Marines.
Military officials have acknowledged that some civilians died, but say they believe the toll is much lower than 140 and that some of the villagers were killed by grenades thrown by Taliban fighters.
All of the U.S. bombs identified by Julian are routinely used in Afghanistan. The 500-pound GBU-12 is a laser-guided bomb, while the 2,000-pound GBU-31 and the 500-pound GBU-38 are primarily guided by global positioning satellites.
The first of the U.S. strikes were carried out in sequence by three F-18s, Julian said. Before that, one of the fighter jets did a "low, fast flyover" in an attempt to dissuade the insurgents from firing on American and Afghan troops, according to an American official.
