Granai airstrike

The Granai airstrike, sometimes called the Granai massacre, refers to the killing of approximately 86 to 147 Afghan civilians by an airstrike by a US Air Force B-1 Bomber on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai (Pashto: گرانای, also Romanized Garani, Gerani, Granay)[1] in Farah Province, south of Herat, Afghanistan.[2][3][4][5][6]

Granai airstrike
Part of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
DateMay 4, 2009
Location
Granai, Bala Buluk District, Farah Province, Afghanistan
32°37′19″N 62°26′06″E
Casualties and losses
Estimate: 86–147 killed, mostly women and children
Granai airstrike is located in Afghanistan
Granai airstrike
Location within Afghanistan

The United States admitted 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".[7][8][9]

The Afghan government has said that around 140 civilians were killed, of whom 22 were adult males and 93 were children.[3][4] Afghanistan's top rights body has said 97 civilians were killed, most of them children.[3] Other estimates range from 86 to 147 civilians killed.[7][10] An earlier probe by the US military had said that 20–30 civilians were killed along with 60–65 insurgents.[3] A partially released American inquiry stated "no one will ever be able conclusively to determine the number of civilian casualties that occurred".[7] The Australian has said that the airstrike resulted in "one of the highest civilian death tolls from Western military action since foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001".[11]

Airstrike video

A Combat Camera video of the airstrike was made by the bomber aircraft involved. When the Pentagon investigation on the incident was released in 2009, it did not include the video.[7][12] In 2010, Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower in the Pentagon Papers case, called for President Obama to release the video of the airstrike online.[13][14]

By May 2010, WikiLeaks had an encrypted copy of the video it had received from then U.S. Army Specialist Chelsea Manning and was attempting to decrypt it.[15][16][17] In a March 2013 statement, Julian Assange disputed prior news reports claiming WikiLeaks had been unable to decrypt the file and alleged that the video "documented a massacre, a war crime."[18] Assange said WikiLeaks no longer had the video due to former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg deleting it along with other files when he left WikiLeaks in September 2010.[18] In the Julian Assange Reddit AMA in January 2017, Assange detailed a Swedish Intelligence operation conducted in September 2010 in which other copies of the video were also lost.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Hollow Excuses". Afghanistan Analysts Network - English. September 12, 2009.
  2. Campbell, Matthew (11 April 2010). "Whistleblowers on US 'massacre' fear CIA stalkers". The Times. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  3. de Luce, Dan (8 June 2009). "We failed to follow bombing rules: Pentagon". AFP. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  4. Shalizi, Hamid; Graff, Peter (16 May 2009). "U.S. strikes killed 140 villagers: Afghan probe". Reuters. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  5. Gall, Carlotta; Shah, Taimoor (14 May 2009). "Afghan Villagers Describe Chaos of U.S. Strikes newspaper". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  6. Boone, Jon; MacAskill, Ewen; Tran, Mark (6 May 2009). "US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  7. Farmer, Ben (11 April 2010). "Wikileaks 'to release video of US strike on Afghan civilians'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  8. Tran, Mark (3 June 2009). "US military admits errors in air strikes that killed scores of Afghan civilians". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  9. Schmitt, Eric P; Shanker, Thom (2 June 2009). "US Report Finds Errors in Afghan Airstrikes". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  10. Denselow, James (23 June 2010). "Hail to the whistleblowers". The Guardian. London.
  11. "'More than 100' die in US-led air strike in Afghanistan". The Australian. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  12. de Luce, Dan (18 June 2009). "US military debates release of Afghan air strike probe". AFP. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  13. Ellsberg, Daniel. "Obama Should Release the Garani Massacre Video to the American Public Immediately". 17 June 2012. Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  14. With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest of Alleged Leaker of Video Showing Iraq Killings, Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on Whistleblowers of Classified Information, Democracy now, June 17, 2010.
  15. McGreal, Chris (16 June 2010). "WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US Afghan attack". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  16. Poulsen, Kevin; Zetter, Kim (6 June 2010). "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe". Wired. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  17. Savage, Charlie (1 March 2013). "Soldier Admits Providing Files to WikiLeaks". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  18. "WikiLeaks has more US secrets, Assange says". March 5, 2013. AU: The Age. 2013-03-05. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  19. Assange, Julian (Verified User: _JulianAssange) (10 January 2017). "I am Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks -- Ask Me Anything". Reddit. Retrieved 12 January 2017. {{cite web}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
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