Airstrike kills U.S.-contracted road workers

[unhappycamper]

Airstrike kills U.S.-contracted road workers
By Amir Shah - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 28, 2007 7:08:30 EST

KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.-led coalition killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan because of mistaken intelligence reports, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The coalition said it was looking into the incident in Nuristan province, but did not immediately comment. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said it has conducted airstrikes against Taliban fighters in the area, but did not say when.

“ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab , and in those places we used airstrikes against ,” ISAF spokesman Portuguese Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco told a news conference. “The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture.”

The engineers and laborers had been contracted by the U.S. military to build a road in mountainous Nuristan, and were sleeping in two tents in Nurgaram when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

“All of our poor workers have been killed,” Jalili said. “I don’t think the Americans were targeting our people. I’m sure it’s the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information.”

The report could not be independently verified because the area is difficult to reach.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_airstrike_071128/

[ixion]

1. yeah, we contract folks so that we can liberate them...

with death. :-(