**US to compensate civilian airstrike victims in Afghanistan **
12 minutes ago
KABUL (AFP) - The US-led military said it would pay 90,000 dollars in compensation to the victims of a May air attack which killed at least 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan
But the compensation process would not start until security improves in Kandahar province’s Panjwayi district where the incident happened, US military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said on Wednesday.
Collins said the Afghan government and the US military put the death toll from the airstrike at 16. But a respected rights group and local residents say 37 people were killed.
“The village of Tulokan was the location of a significant combat engagement on May 21-22 in which several non-combatant civilians were killed following a coalition operation,” Collins told a news conference.
The operation was aimed at some 200 Taliban fighters massing in the village, he said.
“90,000 US dollars will be provided to address the immediate requirements in family assistance, reconstruction and projects in the village,” he said.
“Assistance to this village ultimately is based on when security conditions allow aid workers to enter the village. Taliban extremists continue to target aid workers in the area,” the colonel said.
An insurgency led by the Taliban is at its most violent since the fundamentalist regime was toppled by the US-led coalition and Afghan fighters in late 2001.
The worst-hit areas are southern and eastern Afghanistan.
As part of their anti-government and anti-coalition campaign the Taliban-led rebels have frequently attacked aid and construction workers as well as foreign and Afghan troops.
The forgotten land still has a lot going on, all focus has been on Iran, Lebanon vs Israel conflict lately. Everyone condemns the killing of civilians, now that they are dead, there is some reimbursement from US govt, of course money can’t buy any life but perhaps sorta ease the pain from suffering for sometime.
I don’t recall a compensation announced for earlier assaults on victims, for example when a wedding ceremony was bombed, a civilian caravan was bombed… there was an apology but don’t recall if any financial assistance was announced.