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May 28, 2009 |
Contact: Anna Christopher, NPR |
OF DISPUTED MAY 4 RAID ON AFGHANISTAN VILLAGE
“CLEARLY SHOWS BOMBS HITTING…THE TALIBAN”
INTERVIEW AIRING ON MORNING EDITION
TOMORROW, FRIDAY, MAY 29
EXCERPTS BELOW; FULL TRANSCRIPT TO BE AVAILABLE TOMORROW
Asked by Inskeep whether he has seen a video of the May 4 incident, and what it shows, Petraeus says: “I have. …I was briefed by the brigadier general who I appointed to carry out an investigation of this particular incident, and there is indeed video from a B-1 Bomber that very clearly shows bombs hitting individuals who are the Taliban who are reacting to the movements of the Afghan and coalition forces on the ground.”
On how the men in the video are identified as Taliban, Petraeus says: “Well, it’s a combination of intelligence reports, sources – that all comes together – that is then confirmed by this actual video.”
He continues: “What the video will prove is that the targets of these different strikes were the Taliban. What it does not prove is that there were not civilians killed. I think we agree, actually, that there were civilians killed and I don't want to get in a dispute about numbers and all the rest of that. Again, they'll lay out some of that. But that's not what's material. What's material is that innocent civilians were killed in this incident along, again, with a substantial number of Taliban. And that clearly shows that, again, we have to continually examine the directive that is given to our forces and also examine how our forces understand the operationalization of that – how they understand to employ it. This is a very tough case because this was a very significant ambush of an Afghan force that had our advisors with it, and it was in response to that force – literally rescuing that force at the request of Afghan leaders. …Our forces then moved, and in a night and a very confused, difficult situation in a very tough fight against substantial numbers with a considerable amount of intelligence telling us what was going on, that these bombs were dropped.”
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