This Week in 2001: US Military Bombed an Afghan Village, Killing 23 Civilians (Mostly Young Children)
An atrocity you never heard of
On the evening of October 21, 2001, the US military repeatedly bombed a remote Afghan village killing a total of 23 civilians, many of them young children.
Survivors of the bombing report that the US repeatedly struck the village of Thori, located in the Urozgan province, beginning at 10 p.m. on October 21, 2001 and continuing until at about 1 a.m.
Villagers who rushed to assist those injured by the earlier bombing were injured when the US resumed bombing the village once again. Survivors say the US bombed the village a total of three separate times.
Maroof, aged thirty-eight, lived on a farm near the village of Thori. When he rushed to the village the next day, he found villagers digging through the ruble of his relatives’ home. Twelve bodies of his relatives were recovered from the debris of the family compound.
An excerpt from an October 26, 2001 Human Rights Watch report on the incident reads:
“The dead included the two sons and two daughters of [Maroof’s] twenty-five-year-old sister Rhidi Gul: Aminullah, aged eight; Raminullah, aged three; Noorjan, aged five; and Gulpia, aged four. Rhidi Gul was recovering from serious wounds at the Quetta hospital, unable to speak from her wounds, together with her surviving one-year-old son Hamidullah, also seriously wounded in the attack. Khamno, a ten-year old sister-in-law of Rhidi Gul, also survived the attack and was recovering from serious shrapnel wounds to the face in the Quetta hospital.
Also killed were three of his brothers-in-law: Abdul Ghani, aged twenty-five; Fazliullah, aged fifteen; Mohammed Rahim, aged four; and one sister-in-law: Sherina, aged twelve or thirteen. Another sister-in-law, fifteen-year-old Zarjana, died at the Chinai Hospital in Kandahar as doctors attempted to remove a piece of shrapnel from her body. Three other relatives were also killed: the twenty-year-old wife of his brother-in-law Abdul Ghani and her three-year-old daughter Mohtarama, as well as forty-five-year-old Bobo, the mother of Abdul Ghani.”
Twenty-five-year-old Samiullah was outside the village when the bombing raids began, and rushed home to rescue his family. According to the HRW report, when he arrived at the village he also found many of his family members killed in the bombing.
“When [Samiullah] arrived at his family compound, he found the bodies of his twenty-year-old wife and three of his children: Mohibullah, aged six; Harifullah, aged three; and Bibi Aysha, aged one. He refused to name several female victims on religious grounds. As he was recovering their bodies, the bombing raids resumed, and he himself was wounded in the attacks.
Also killed were his two brothers, Nasiullah, aged eight, and Ghaziullah, aged six, as well as two of his sisters, aged fourteen and eleven. Three cousins, all siblings, also died: Ahmed Wali, aged six; Nabiullah, aged 3; and their eight-month old sister. A fourth cousin whom he was unable to identify died during the grueling seven-hour trip on a farm truck to the hospital in Kandahar.”
Several additional survivors from Thori were also in the Quetta hospital, recovering from their wounds. Twenty-year-old Faisal Rahim rushed to help the wounded in Thori, and was himself wounded when the bombing resumed and a wall collapsed on his leg. Another young man at the Quetta hospital who wanted to remain anonymous was seriously wounded in the foot by shrapnel.
Children killed in the attack include:
Aminullah, aged eight
Raminullah, aged three
Noorjan, aged five
Gulpia, aged four.
Fazliullah, aged fifteen;
Mohammed Rahim, aged four
Sherina, aged twelve or thirteen.
Zarjana, aged fifteen-year-old died at Chinai Hospital in Kandahar as doctors attempted to remove a piece of shrapnel from her body.
Mohtarama, aged three
Nasiullah, aged eight
Ghaziullah, aged six
Ahmed Wali, aged six;
Nabiullah, aged 3;
Read the Human Rights Watch report on the incident here.