- I visited Aziz Abad in Southwestern Afghanistan two weeks
ago. It is a painful sight. Aziz Abad is the area, where the US bombing
raid murdered 94 civilians. Last year on August 22, 2008, the US forces
bombed this area in the middle of the night while villagers had gathered
to participate in a religious ceremony. The result was horrific.
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- One of the villagers who lost two of his brothers and
all of his nephews told me that before the bombing had started, all of
the women had gathered in one of the compound while men were in another
compound. When the US forces started bombing using AC-130 Gunships and
helicopters, women, children and men were all massacred mostly in two locations.
The women compound was hit first. In that compound some of the women and
children were killed instantly; however, a number of them survived. The
survivors ran to another compound in the vicinity with the hope that they
would survive but tragically that compound was also bombed beyond recognition.
The compound where the men were situated was also bombed and those men
that ran from the compound were targeted individually. Subsequent to the
bombing, US soldiers entered the bombed buildings and shot each wounded
individual. One of the women, who lost five children, was under the rubbles
and was paralyzed under the waist pretended to be dead, hence, she survived.
The following is her photo with a reporter and I:
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- She is paralyzed from the waist down
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- The majority of the survivors abandoned their village
and became refugees within their own country.
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- Two particularly painful incidents in this massacre affected
me in ways that would remain with me for the rest of my life.
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- The first tragedy was the slaughter of the family of
Nur Mohammad. He lost 12 members of his family including himself. When
his house was bombed, ten of the twelve family members were killed. Two
of his grandchildren that were visiting their grandparents survived. The
two children ran to the door of one of the nearby houses screaming "we
are scared our grandparents and everyone in the house are dead. Open the
door, open the doorS" Before the neighbors could open the door to
the terrified children, the US Gunship targeted the children and the house
with the rocket, shattering the children and the neighbors into unrecognized
pieces of flesh.
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- The second tragedy is the case of Zahra, who lost eleven
(11) members of her family. She is the only survivor of her immediate family.
Her grandmother, who is suffering from Parkinson disease, is the only surviving
member of her extended family. I posed in the following photo with the
little girl and her grandmother.
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- They are in bad need of assistance if anyone likes to
help please donate at the following website to help Zahra and her grandmother
and the paralyzed woman:
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- www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com
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- I just returned from Afghanistan and would like to help
this family. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
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- Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD
- www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com
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- mdmiraki@ameritech.net
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- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 2009
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