Vol. 72/No. 32      August 18, 2008

Ottawa will also send helicopters and unmanned planes to Afghanistan in the coming months.

The Canadian parliament voted March 13 to extend its troop commitment in Afghanistan to 2011, on the condition that other NATO powers reinforce their troops and military equipment in the southern part of the country where combat is the most intense.

On July 27 Canadian soldiers killed two children, aged two and four, who were in a car that approached their convoy in Kandahar. The father, Ruzi Mohammed, was injured.

Defense Minister Peter McKay justified the killings saying, “This is one of those horrible circumstances, a horrible decision has to be taken, when a vehicle is approaching, when it’s behaving erratically, when you have in the back of your mind the fact that this may be a bomb coming your way.”

According to Human Rights Watch at least 300 Afghan civilians were killed by coalition forces last year.
 
 
Related articles:
Maryland state police spied on groups against war, death penalty
White House broadens powers of spy director
Pentagon document projects ‘Long War’
U.S. military napalmed civilians in Korean War  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home