02-13-2022, 04:50 PM
A recently declassified Pentagon report on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has renewed attacks against President Joe Biden from across the political spectrum. No doubt, the lack of foresight on the rapid collapse of the US-built Afghan government is inexcusable and created needless chaos.
New reporting on the August 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport – an attack that killed more than 150 people – suggests that some victims may have died of gunshot wounds, rather than the explosion. While the Pentagon has acknowledged that American and British troops fired "a small number of warning shots" from opposite sides of the crowd, it maintains that no Afghans were killed by US forces. Doctors in Kabul tell a different story.
In interviews with ProPublica and Alive in Afghanistan, six physicians from three different hospitals in the Afghan capital dispute the Pentagon’s claim that casualties were inflicted solely by "explosively propelled ball bearings" used in the improvised bomb.
"The doctors remained convinced that they saw wounds from bullets, not only ball bearings," the outlets reported, adding "All said they had the experience necessary to make the distinction, having responded to numerous terrorist attacks and firefights in their medical careers."
At Kabul’s Emergency Surgical Centre – an Italian-run facility which primarily treats war victims – doctors say they received 10 people killed by gunfire to the head, neck and chest. Others were also treated for non-fatal gunshot wounds.
New reporting on the August 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport – an attack that killed more than 150 people – suggests that some victims may have died of gunshot wounds, rather than the explosion. While the Pentagon has acknowledged that American and British troops fired "a small number of warning shots" from opposite sides of the crowd, it maintains that no Afghans were killed by US forces. Doctors in Kabul tell a different story.
In interviews with ProPublica and Alive in Afghanistan, six physicians from three different hospitals in the Afghan capital dispute the Pentagon’s claim that casualties were inflicted solely by "explosively propelled ball bearings" used in the improvised bomb.
"The doctors remained convinced that they saw wounds from bullets, not only ball bearings," the outlets reported, adding "All said they had the experience necessary to make the distinction, having responded to numerous terrorist attacks and firefights in their medical careers."
At Kabul’s Emergency Surgical Centre – an Italian-run facility which primarily treats war victims – doctors say they received 10 people killed by gunfire to the head, neck and chest. Others were also treated for non-fatal gunshot wounds.