"Many places where drones are used are
inaccessible to foreign or even local journalists. Civilian casualties can be
minimised or denied. I reported in 2009 a US bombing raid on three villages in
Farah province, south of Herat, which killed 147 people, according to locals.
There were craters 30ft deep which a US spokesman cheerfully suggested had been
made by Taliban fighters throwing grenades into houses. This was an obvious lie,
but it was impossible for journalists to prove the opposite.
Of course, local people knew what had
happened. They drove their tractors pulling trailers full of body parts to the
provincial capital where government soldiers opened fire, killing three of them.
I wondered at the time how many of the surviving young men of the three
villages, and in the rest of Farah province, joined the Taliban because of that
bombing raid." (thanks Ali)
