Current Event: 147 Afghans dead

It was said that at about midnight our time on May 7th 147 people died in the two villages of Ganjabad and Gerani. Abdul Basir Khan, ho is a member of Farahs provincial council helped collect names of those who died and he said he collected 55 names at one place and 92 at another. If this death toll number is correct then it would be the worst case of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, at one time, since 2001 during the U.S. led invasion that helped oust the Taliban. The villagers told the investigators that most of the dead were buried in mass graves with up to 20 people. The investigators did not bother to dig those bodies up from the ground. When the international Red Cross went to the two villages they said that women and children were among the many of dead people lying in their ruined houses due to the bombing. The ones who were still alive were crying and going around with the investigators pointing and telling them who their family members were, where the graves were, and where their house used to be. Many people blame it on the Americans and the bombing runs that they took in western Afghanistan. What really happened was that the U.S. forces had ordered air strikes on the Taliban after a firefight. But instead of killing the Taliban the bombs killed civilians who were hiding in their houses. The surviving villagers said that they gathered the older males, women, and children in several building near the village of Gerani to keep them away from the bombing. But those buildings ended up being some of them that were hit. Not everyone though who died was killed by the bombings. Yes some were killed by the air strike (the bombing) but they were also killed by the firefight between the Americans and Taliban, and the Taliban deliberately killed some. Their hope was that the U.S. would be blamed because of their bombing. After the bombing took place around 150 people took part in a protest involving stone-throwing and chanting “Death to America.” They also clashed with the police. This is just one of the many stories about death in Afghanistan.