Killing Afghan hearts and minds

msnbc: Military officials are probing two clashes in which Afghan civilians and police may have been killed by U.S.-led coalition forces, authorities said Monday.

The U.S. military has launched an inquiry into Saturday's deaths of seven Afghan civilians after American forces using aircraft and artillery battled militants in a house and a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province.

The Canadian-led military in the southern Kandahar province also said it was investigating whether "friendly fire" was responsible for casualties sustained by Afghan police during fierce fighting Friday against Taliban forces.

Afghan authorities said 41 Taliban militants and six Afghan police were killed during the fighting in Sangisar, 25 miles southwest of Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold. Link

db: When you read a little news on a regular basis these things become depressingly predictable - we said on saturday:

Of course they were all evil Taliban - guilty of....being evil Taliban. No innocents were killed. How do I know that? Because that's what I read in the news - which usually comes from Afghan government sources or the US - and they wouldn't lie. Link

And isn't it rather PERVERSE to describe the mode of killing seven civilians as 'friendly fire'