Evidence Mounts NATO Report Lied on Afghan Civilian Killings Rear Admiral Smith Admits No Evidence of Claimed 'Firefight' The February 12 night raid against a house party in Afghanistans Paktia Province remains shrouded in mystery, but NATOs official story appears to be crumbling as even NATO officials concede that the claims made were not strictly true.
NATOs official statement claimed at the time that the raid on the home led to a fire fight against several insurgents who were killed, before NATO made a gruesome discovery of bound and gagged bodies in a nearby room.
NATO is conceding now that all of the slain people were civilians killed in the raid. NATO communications direct Rear Admiral Greg Smith also admitted that they had no real evidence that the men slain at the home had ever fired a shot against the NATO forces.
Witnesses at the site reported that one of the people in the compound, a local policeman, shouted dont fire, we work for the government before being gunned down by the invading forces.
Rear Admiral Smith defended the killing of the policeman, however, saying if you have got an individual stepping out of a compound, and if your assault force is there, that is often the trigger to neutralise (read: kill) the individual. You dont have to be fired upon to fire back.
Since the incident, all those detained by NATO have been released without charges. In addition, the US has reportedly paid $2,000 to the family for each of the civilians killed in the attack.