The Dasht-i-Leili massacre occurred in December 2001 during the
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operation ...
when 250 to 2,000
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal shipping containers while being transferred by
Junbish-i Milli
The National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ( prs, جنبش ملی اسلامی افغانستان, ''Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan''), sometimes called simply Junbish, is a Turkic political party in Afghanistan. Its founder is Marshal A ...
soldiers under the supervision of forces loyal to General
Rashid Dostum from
Kunduz
, native_name_lang = prs
, other_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg
, imagesize = 300
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, image_ ...
to
Sheberghan
Sheberghān or Shaburghān ( Uzbek, Pashto, fa, شبرغان), also spelled ''Shebirghan'' and ''Shibarghan'', is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.
The city of Sheberghan has a population of 175,599. It has four ...
prison in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. The site of the graves is believed to be in the
Dasht-e Leili desert just west of
Sheberghan
Sheberghān or Shaburghān ( Uzbek, Pashto, fa, شبرغان), also spelled ''Shebirghan'' and ''Shibarghan'', is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.
The city of Sheberghan has a population of 175,599. It has four ...
, in the
Jowzjan Province
Jowzjan, sometimes spelled Jawzjan or Jozjan (Dari: ), is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. The province is divided into 11 districts and contains hundreds of v ...
.
[Dasht-e-Leili Photos; Sheberghan Prison and Pit Locations at Dasht-e-Leili]
, Physicians for Human Rights, Retrieved 19 February 2012
Some of the prisoners were survivors of the
Battle of Qala-i-Jangi
The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi (sometimes also referred to as the "Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif") was a six-day military engagement following an uprising of prisoners-of-war on November 25, 2001. The battle took place between November 25 and December 1 ...
in
Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
. In 2009, Dostum denied the accusations.
According to all sources, many of the prisoners died from suffocation inside the containers, and some witnesses claimed that those who survived were shot. The dead were buried in a mass grave under the authority of Commander Kamal.
The allegations have been investigated since 2002 by
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
(PHR). PHR conducted two forensic missions to the site under the auspices of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
in 2002. In 2008, PHR reported that the grave had been tampered with.
Controversy over responsibility and scale
In late 2001, around 8,000
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
fighters, including
Chechens
The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Eu ...
,
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
and
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
as well as suspected members of
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
, surrendered to the
Junbish-i Milli
The National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ( prs, جنبش ملی اسلامی افغانستان, ''Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan''), sometimes called simply Junbish, is a Turkic political party in Afghanistan. Its founder is Marshal A ...
faction of
Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...
General
Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum ( ; prs, عبدالرشید دوستم; Uzbek Latin: , Uzbek Cyrillic: , ; born 25 March 1954) is an Afghan exiled politician, former Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party Junbish- ...
, a U.S. ally in the
war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
*Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...
, after the
siege of Kunduz
The siege of Kunduz took place in 2001 during the War in Afghanistan. After the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 November, the focus of the Northern Alliance advance shifted towards the city of Kunduz, which was the last remaining Taliban stronghold ...
. Several hundred of the prisoners, among them American
John Walker Lindh
John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American convicted felon who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghani ...
, came to be held in Qala-i-Jangi, a fort near
Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
, where they staged a bloody uprising which took several days to quell. The remaining 7,500 were loaded onto
containers
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
for transport to
Sheberghan prison
The Sheberghan Prison is a prison in northern Afghanistan.
Following the battle of Qali-Jangi, in Mazari Sharif, General Dostum sent many of the surviving captives to Sheberghan Prison.
He is reported to have sent them in industrial shipping ...
, a journey that in some cases took several days.
Human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
advocates say hundreds or thousands of them went missing.
In late 2001, Carlotta Gall, Jamie Doran and Newsweek began reporting rumors that Dostum's forces, who were fighting the Taliban alongside the US Special Forces, intentionally suffocated as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners in container trucks in an incident that has become known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre.
[
The first allegations that dozens of prisoners had suffocated in the containers appeared in a December 2001 article in '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. A 2002 documentary named '' Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death'' by Jamie Doran
Jamie Doran is an Irish-Scottish independent documentary filmmaker and former BBC producer.Hali, S. M. (2006-03-28)"Afghan Blues!" ''The Nation'' He founded the multi award-winning company Clover Films, based in Windsor, in 2008. He is also ...
produced testimony from eyewitnesses alleging hundreds or even thousands of prisoners had died, either during transport in the containers or being shot and dumped in the Dasht-i-Leili desert after arriving at the hopelessly overcrowded Sheberghan prison. Witnesses presented in the documentary also alleged that wounded and unconscious survivors of the container transports had been executed in the desert in the presence of U.S. soldiers. Doran's documentary, which was viewed by the European and German parliaments, caused widespread concern in Europe and among human rights advocates. It was not reported on in the United States mass media.
Allegations of American involvement were disputed by Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton (born July 25, 1955) is a Canadian-American author, journalist, and documentary film director. Pelton's work usually consists of conflict reporting and interviews with military and political figures in war zones.
Pelton has ...
, who had been in the area reporting for National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
and CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. Pelton also said the number of prisoners who suffocated in the containers was roughly 250, a far smaller number than alleged in Doran's documentary. He claims he saw US medics treating some of the prisoners. He says some of the bodies may be victims of the Taliban or of Malik's executions in the 1990s.
In 2016, Dostum spoke to Ronan Farrow
Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is best known for his investigative reporting of allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Ha ...
, reluctantly admitting that local commanders had loaded prisoners from the uprising at Qala-i-Jangi into multiple containers and that American forces had been present. Dostum denied that either he or the Americans murdered the prisoners and would not directly say whether he had ordered the commanders to do this nor whether witnesses were later killed.
Subsequent investigations
In 2002, Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
(PHR) led an investigation of alleged mass gravesites at Mazar. A UN forensic team found fifteen recently deceased bodies in a six-yard trial trench dug at a grave site and performed an autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
on three of them, concluding that they had been the victims of homicide, the cause of death being consistent with suffocation, as described by the eyewitness reports featured in Doran's film. A major ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' article on the massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
appeared in August 2002, raising questions about America's responsibility for the war crimes committed by its allies. It quoted Aziz ur Rahman Razekh, director of the Afghan Organization of Human Rights, asserting "with confidence" that "more than a thousand people died in the containers."[
The 2002 ''Newsweek'' article stated that "death by container" – locking prisoners in containers and leaving them to die in them – had been an established method of mass execution in Afghanistan for some years. As the containers were sealed, the prisoners began suffering from lack of air soon after being locked in them. According to witnesses in Doran's documentary, air holes were shot into the sides of some containers, killing several of those inside. ''Newsweek'' reported that drivers were punished for giving water to the prisoners, or punching holes into the containers. Survivors of the container transports, interviewed by '']Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'', recalled that after 24 hours the bound prisoners were so thirsty that they resorted to licking the sweat of each other's bodies. Some bit into the bodies of fellow prisoners. In the containers of these survivors, only 20 to 40 prisoners of an original 150 or more were still alive when the containers arrived at their destination.[
Further investigation of the mass grave sites were impeded by Rashid Dostum's continuing military control over the area and due to intimidation. Physicians for Human Rights have claimed that the Bush administration consistently refused to respond to PHR's calls for investigation.][, ]Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
In 2008, the United States Defense Department and State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
released documentation per a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Raymond that indicated that 1,500 to 2,000 people were killed at Dasht-i-Leili.
Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid (Urdu:; born 1948 in Pakistan) is a journalist and best-selling foreign policy author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
Life and career
Ahmed Rashid was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He attended Ma ...
wrote in 2008 that the prisoners were "stuffed in like sardines, 250 or more per container, so that the prisoners' knees were against their chests". According to Rashid, only a handful survived in each of the thirty containers and UN officials reported that just six out of an original 220 survived in one of the containers. The dead were buried by bulldozers in pits in the desert. Rashid called the massacre "the most outrageous and brutal human rights violation of the entire war", which had occurred "despite the presence of US SOF in the region."
American probe
On 10 July 2009, an article on the massacre by Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning journalist James Risen
James Risen (born April 27, 1955) is an American journalist for ''The Intercept''. He previously worked for ''The New York Times'' and before that for ''Los Angeles Times''. He has written or co-written many articles concerning U.S. government ...
appeared in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Risen stated that human rights groups' estimates of the total number of victims "ranged from several hundred to several thousand" and that U.S. officials had "repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode". Questioned about the article by Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator from the Vanderbilt family. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at C ...
of CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
during a trip to Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, United States President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
was reported to have "ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001."
Excerpts from Doran's documentary ''Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death'' were broadcast on ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' on 13 July 2009, with images from the documentary shown on the programme's website.[Staff (13 July 2009)]
Obama Calls for Probe into 2001 Massacre of at Least 2,000 Suspected Taliban POWs by US-Backed Afghan Warlord
, ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' The programme, which featured James Risen and Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
, claimed that "at least 2,000" prisoners of war had perished in the massacre. Sirkin confirmed the claims made in ''Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death'' that eyewitnesses who had come forward with information on the incident had been tortured and killed, and stated that a FOIA document showed that the "U.S. government and, apparently, intelligence agency – it's a three-letter word that’s redacted of an intelligence branch of the U.S. government in the FOIA – they knew and reported that eyewitnesses to this massacre had been killed and tortured."
Risen commented in the programme that in writing his article he "tried not to get caught up in something that I think in the past has slowed down some of the efforts by journalists to look into this. I think in the past one of the mistakes some journalists made was to try and prove a direct involvement by the U.S. personnel in the massacre itself. I frankly don't believe that any U.S. military personnel were involved in the massacre. And, you know, U.S. Special Forces troops who were traveling with Dostum have long maintained that they knew nothing about this. And, you know, so I tried not to go down that road." He added that "the investigation should focus rather on what happened afterwards in the Bush administration."
A ''New York Times'' editorial on 14 July 2009 called the Bush administration's refusal to investigate a "sordid legacy". Noting that Dostum was "on the C.I.A. payroll and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in the early days of the war", the editorial asked President Obama to "order a full investigation into the massacre. The site must be guarded and witnesses protected." Edward S. Herman
Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. Herman is known for his media criticism, in particular the propaganda model hypothesis he developed with Noam Chomsky, a fr ...
, writing in ''Z Magazine
Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Verso, ...
'', commented that this renewed interest by ''The New York Times'' in the massacre, after a 7-year silence on the matter, was rather late in coming and coincided with Dostum's restoration to a position of power in Afghanistan prior to the August 2009 elections, in a move that the U.S. administration disapproved of. Herman said that ''The New York Times'' had essentially looked whichever way the current U.S. administration had wanted it to look for the best part of a decade, and that this was also "part of the sordid legacy of the ''New York Times''."
On 17 July 2009, in an article published by ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
'', Dostum, recently reappointed to his government job by Afghan President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
, again described Doran's film as a "fake story", saying that the whole number of prisoners of war captured by his troops was less than the number Doran's film claimed had been killed, and denying there could have been any abuse of prisoners.[ Dostum's column was sharply criticised by human rights groups.][ In a rebuttal published by ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty'' in parallel to Dostum's piece, Sam Zarifi, the Asia-Pacific director for ]Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
and a human rights investigator in Afghanistan in 2002, stated that "investigations carried out shortly after the alleged killings by highly experienced and respected forensic analysts from Physicians for Human Rights established the presence of recently deceased human remains at Dasht-e Leili and suggested that they were the victims of homicide."[
In December 2009 ]Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
(PHR) renewed its call for the Obama administration’s Department of Justice to investigate why the Bush administration impeded an FBI criminal probe in the wake of the 10 July 2009 front-page article in ''The New York Times''. On 26 December 2009, the Asian Tribune
The ''Asian Tribune'' is an online newspaper. Their funding is unknown, and critics, such as the Sri Lanka Guardian, consider their journalism to be of poor quality. The publication is owned by K.T. Rajasingham, who is also a writer for the publ ...
published the full transcript of a video interview given by the officials of Physicians for Human Rights, detailing nearly eight years of advocacy and investigation.
See also
* '' Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death''
* List of massacres in Afghanistan
The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Afghanistan (numbers may be approximate):
Durrani Empire and Anglo-Afghan War
Khalq communist rule
Civil war
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
*Note: According to the United Nati ...
Notes
External links
* United States Department of Defense. " Freedom of Information Act Release to Physicians for Human Rights Regarding Dasht-i-Leili" (4 August 2008).
* United States Department of State. " Freedom of Information Act Release to Physicians for Human Rights Regarding Dasht-i-Leili" (19 September 2008).
Obama Calls for Probe into 2001 Massacre of at Least 2,000 Suspected Taliban POWs by US-Backed Afghan Warlord
''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' (2009-07-13)
Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death
by Jamie Doran
Jamie Doran is an Irish-Scottish independent documentary filmmaker and former BBC producer.Hali, S. M. (2006-03-28)"Afghan Blues!" ''The Nation'' He founded the multi award-winning company Clover Films, based in Windsor, in 2008. He is also ...
Interview on the film with Jamie Doran
''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' (2003-05-26)
* , Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
Afghanistan Mass Grave: The Dasht-e-Leili War Crimes Investigation
Robert Young Pelton responds to Dasht-i-Leili story
by Tom Lasseter, ''McClatchy Newspapers''b, 11 December 2008
Special Report: The Death Convoy Of Afghanistan
by Babak Dehghanpiseh, John Barry and Roy Gutman, ''Newsweek'', 26 August 2002
by Jim Rissman, ''Antiwar.com'', 11 July 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasht-I-Leili Massacre
Conflicts in 2001
2001 in Afghanistan
Mass murder in 2001
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Massacres in Afghanistan
History of Balkh Province
December 2001 events in Asia
2001 murders in Asia
2001 murders in Afghanistan