Two women killed, 4 children hurt by a, I imagine poorly directed, US arty Strike

[discovery1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4706902.stm

Two Pakistani nomadic women and 4 children hurt have been killed by US arty fire from inside Afghanistan. The US army states that the action was approved by the Pakistani governent, well the attempted shelling of hostiles, not the bombing of civilians. The bombardment was in responce to earlier attacks against an outpost in Afghanistan.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Gosh, if the US are gonna blow up civilians they could be a bit more http://forumspile.com/OMFG-Subtle.gif

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Looks like they were played for suckers.

Terrorist fires from location of civilian tent and scoots, accurate counter-fire then whacks civvies creating bad press for USA.

Or, they missed a target and the overshot took out the tent.


Sad.

[discovery1]

Looks like they were played for suckers.

Terrorist fires from location of civilian tent and scoots, accurate counter-fire then whacks civvies creating bad press for USA.

Or, they missed a target and the overshot took out the tent.


Sad.

Or the nomads wandered into the area.

[Papewaio]

How many did Saddam kill with Mustard Gas?

Just wondering who is the official point score keeper... :gah:

[Watchman]

I fail to see the compatibility.

[Samurai Waki]

when was the last war where innocents and civilians weren't killed in the process? or am I missing something?

[Azi Tohak]

when was the last war where innocents and civilians weren't killed in the process? or am I missing something?

Shhh. Quiet down there. You know the US Army just likes to shell women and children. They are smaller targets so they are worth more points.

To answer Pape, maybe the UN should be the official score keeper. Make that organization useful for something. I don't know if they will agree on if kids are worth more or less points though.

I don't understand why this story was even worth reporting. People died. So? At least this is in a new area besides Iraq. Maybe that deserves some press?

Azi

[Rodion Romanovich]

Looks like they were played for suckers.

Terrorist fires from location of civilian tent and scoots, accurate counter-fire then whacks civvies creating bad press for USA.

Or, they missed a target and the overshot took out the tent.


Sad.

If the pakistani government approved then they're certainly very much responsible. I personally wouldn't consider this bad press for the USA, rather a bit of bad press for Pakistan. Pakistan after all had the final word on whether the incident would happen or not...

[Tribesman]

If the pakistani government approved then they're certainly very much responsible.
Thats the thing , Lt. Cody is saying they did coordinate with the Pakistani military , but Maj.Gen Shaukat Sultan says they didn't .
Cody says there are no details of any casualties and Sultan says there are six .

when was the last war where innocents and civilians weren't killed in the process? or am I missing something?
What you are missing , apart from the fact that it was a balls up , is that it is another unfortunate cross border incident where the situation between the parties involved is already very dodgy .

[Redleg]

The article is lacking in details, in many different areas. Rockets shot across into Pakistan. No mention of counterbattery radar or the coordination for the fire mission being done. No mention on the length of time between the possible accquistion of the enemy fire from that location and the time it took for the counter-fire mission to have been done. (The time issue would resolve if the required coordination was not done.)

Lots of simple details missing. Bad press for both the United States and Pakistan.

[Leet Eriksson]

Isn't there a 20 kilometer neutral zone between borders?

That means the US can shell these areas, ditto the natives.

[Redleg]

Isn't there a 20 kilometer neutral zone between borders?

That means the US can shell these areas, ditto the natives.

It all depends on what was worked out by both nations.

However if I remember correctly a neutral zone still requires coordination between the two nations. There might be some give in hostile pursuit cases, but counterbattery fire might or might not fit into such a category.

To many details missing, especially that of time. If the counterbattery fire did not happen within 60 seconds of the initial volley of enemy fire - its pretty much ineffective especially against motars and other mobile indirect systems.