Lower Babur is a village in the

Arghandab District Arghandab (Pashto/ fa, ارغنداب) is a district in the central part of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It borders Panjwai and Khakrez districts to the west, Shah Wali Kot District to the north and east and Kandahar District to the east an ...

Kandahar Province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan ...

in southern

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 ...

that was destroyed by American military forces in October and November 2010.Ackerman, Spencer
‘Why I Flattened Three Afghan Villages’
''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online magazine, online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquar ...

'', 1 February 2011. In the Autumn of 2010, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

launched

Operation Dragon Strike Operation Dragon Strike was a NATO counter-insurgent mission in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, against Taliban forces, which started on September 15, 2010. Planning The aim of the operation was to reclaim the strategic southern province of Ka ...

in Kandahar as a part of U.S. President

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 ...

's broader troop surge strategy in Afghanistan.Hastings, Deborah,
Operation Dragon Strike: Battle for Kandahar Begins
, ''AOL News'', 27 September 2010. After experiencing high casualties in Arghandab, Lt. Col. David S. Flynn of the American 1-320th field artillery, a part of the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

, ordered villagers in some villages to diffuse IEDs or leave their villages, which would be destroyed by aerial bombardment. Flynn maintained that villagers knew the location of IEDs; some villagers later stated that they would coordinate with insurgents to travel safely along certain paths at certain hours of the day. Flynn later explained that the villages were empty of people and full of IEDs,Flynn, David
"I Acted After a Great Deal of Deliberative Planning."
Thomas Rick's ''Foreign Policy'' Blog, 24 January 2011. a claim repeated by ''

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 ...

''.Norland, Rod and Taimoor Shah
NATO is Razing Booby-Trapped Afghan Homes
''

, 16 November 2010. Villagers near Lower Babur disputed this account during interviews with

IPS IPS, ips, or iPS may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * ''Ips'' (genus), a genus of bark beetle * Induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cells * Intermittent photic stimulation, a neuroimaging technique * Intraparietal sulcus, ...

, explaining that they had evacuated their homes prior to the American offensive, but returned regularly to tend to their properties.Noori, Shah and Gareth Porter,
Kabul: Afghan villagers dispute U.S. Rationale for bombing
." ''The Madison Times'', 2 March 2011.Porter, Gareth

''

Asia Times ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...

'', 21 December 2010. Few media sources describe the destruction of Lower Babur specifically.

governor Shah Muhammed Ahmadi reported that 6 villages had been destroyed, with his assent and the agreement of their inhabitants. In April 2011, Bob Strong of Reuters reported that "a walk through what was once the village of lower Babur revealed a narrow strip of rubble surrounded by orchards and forest on both sides, testimony to the force of U.S. bombing."Strong, Bob
U.S. troops await Taliban in south Afghan valley
''Reuters'', 12 April 2011. Strong noted that the village mosque had been rebuilt. In August 2011, Sean Martin reported that 20 small houses had been "rebuilt" by the "Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team." Afghans had not yet moved back into their village.Martin, Sean
Kandahar PRT engineers perform site assessment at lower Babur Village rebuild
''Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System'', 17 August 2011.

References

{{coord missing, Afghanistan Populated places in Kandahar Province 2010 in Afghanistan 2011 in Afghanistan United States military scandals War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

See also

References