US probe into Afghan civil deaths 'deeply flawed': HRW

NEW YORK - A US investigation into a military airstrike in Afghanistan last year was "deeply flawed" and casts doubt over the American military's commitment to reduce civilian casualties, a leading human rights group said on Thursday.
After the US bombing of Azizabad in August, US forces reported five to seven civilian deaths. Both the Afghan government and the United Nations said more than 90 civilians had been killed.
The US military reopened its investigation after a video emerged showing bodies of victims. The second inquiry, led by US Air Force Brigadier General Michael Callan, found 33 civilians had been killed.
But Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the way it was conducted and questioned the US army's pledge to protect civilians in military operations. "The US military's investigation into deadly and controversial airstrikes in Azizabad in Afghanistan in August 2008 was deeply flawed," the New York-based HRW said in a letter to Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
"The weaknesses in the Callan investigation call into question the Defense Department's commitment to avoid civilian casualties," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Unless the new Obama administration urgently addresses the US military's airstrike practices in Afghanistan, more unnecessary civilian deaths and injuries will result."
The US military, HRW said, failed to admit making any mistakes in its initial assessments and "exonerated" US forces of any wrongdoing.
The US military also dismissed claims by Afghan villagers that some of the graves contained more than one body and assumed almost all the men who died were insurgents, HRW said.
Nearly 700 civilians were killed up to October last year in raids by foreign and Afghan forces, an Afghan rights body said last month, quoting UN figures.