Uruzgan helicopter attack refers to the February 21, 2010, killing of many

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

civilians Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

, including over twenty

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

, four

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

and one child, by

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

with another 12 civilians wounded. The attack took place near the border between

Uruzgan Uruzgan ( Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as ...

and

Daykundi Daykundi ( prs, دایکندی) also spelled as Daikundi, Daykondi, Daikondi or Dai Kundi, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the central part of the country. It has a population of about 516,504, and is a Hazara Pro ...

province 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 ...

when special operation troops

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s attacked three minibuses with "airborne weapons".

Summary of events

The victims were traveling in three buses in broad daylight in a group of 42 civilians in

province near the border to

on February 21, 2010 . When the convoy was on a main road in the village of Zerma it came under attack from

U.S. Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...

piloting Little Bird helicopters using "airborne weapons".

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

later stated that they believed at that time that the minibuses were carrying insurgents. 27 civilians including four women and one child were killed in the attack while another 12 were wounded. Initially the number of deaths was reported at 33.

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

ground troops transported the wounded to medical treatment facilities after they found women and children at the scene.

Reaction

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's cabinet called the killings "unjustifiable" and condemned the raid "in the strongest terms possible". The local governor and the Interior Minister said that all of the victims were civilians. Amanullah Hotak, head of Uruzgan's provincial council said: "We don't want their apologies or the money they always give after every attack. We want them to kill all of us together instead of doing it to us one by one." Haji Ghullam Rasoul, whose cousins died in the attack, said, "They came here to bring security but they kill our children, they kill our brothers and they kill our people."

United States

U.S. General

Stanley McChrystal Stanley Allen McChrystal (born August 14, 1954) is a retired United States Army general best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) from 2003 to 2008 where his organization was credited with the death of Abu Musab al-Zarq ...

said he was "extremely saddened". "I have made it clear to our forces that we are here to protect the Afghan people, and inadvertently killing or injuring civilians undermines their trust and confidence in our mission," he said in a statement. "We will re-double our efforts to regain that trust."

Netherlands

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Defense Ministry spokesman in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

said Dutch forces did not call the airstrike, which took place in an area under Dutch military control.

References

External links

Another Massacre In Afghanistan
Bill Van Auken
Questions linger after airstrike on civilian convoy in Afghanistan
Steve Rennie

Jerome Starkey, Kabul {{DEFAULTSORT:Uruzgan Helicopter Attack 2010 in Afghanistan Airstrikes during the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Civilian casualties in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) History of Urozgan Province February 2010 events in Afghanistan Helicopter attacks Attacks in Afghanistan in 2010 2010 airstrikes Massacres committed by the United States military