Granai airstrike

The Granai airstrike, often called the Granai massacre, refers to the killing of approximately 86 to 147 Afghancivilians by an airstrike by a US Air ForceB-1 Bomber on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai (Pashto: گرانای, also Romanized Garani, Gerani, Granay) in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan.

To remove accountability, the United States said significant errors were made in carrying out the airstrike, stating "the inability to discern the presence of civilians and avoid and/or minimize accompanying collateral damage resulted in the unintended consequence of civilian casualties".

The Afghan government said that around 140 civilians were killed, of whom 22 were adult men and 93 were children. Afghanistan's top rights body has said 97 civilians were killed, most of them children. Other estimates range from 86 to 147 civilians killed. An earlier probe by the US military had said that 20–30 civilians were killed along with 60–65 insurgents. A partially released American inquiry stated "no one will ever be able conclusively to determine the number of civilian casualties that occurred". The Australian had said that the airstrike resulted in "one of the highest civilian death tolls from Western military action since foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001".