THE NEW YORK TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5,...

Ø Ø N A9INTERNATIONALTHE NEW YORK TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2009

By JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — With support forBritain’s military role in Afghani-stan weakening in opinion pollsand among lawmakers in the rul-ing Labour Party, Prime MinisterGordon Brown recommitted hisgovernment on Friday to its part-nership with the United Statesand other allied nations in thebattle with the Taliban.

“When the security of ourcountry is at stake we cannotwalk away,” Mr. Brown said in aspeech that aides billed as a wa-tershed moment in the debate inBritain over the Afghan conflictand rising casualties being suf-fered by British troops. He add-ed: “A safer Britain requires asafer Afghanistan.”

But the British leader accom-panied his vow to stick with theBritish commitment with a freshdemand that other NATO nationsaccept a heavier share of thegrowing combat with the Taliban.He made no mention of the na-tions that British officials haveidentified in the past as laggardsin their willingness to help withcombat — principally France,Germany, Italy and Spain.

But Mr. Brown spoke bluntly.“While it is right that we play ourpart, so, too, must others taketheir fair share of this burden ofresponsibility,” he said. “Forty-two countries are involved, andall must ask themselves if theyare doing enough. For terrorismknows no borders.”

But the appeal seemed unlikelyto make much impact on Euro-pean leaders, who are faced withsimilar resistance from their own

electorates to any wider Afghanrole. Angela Merkel, the Germanchancellor, who is running for asecond term in an election laterthis month, faces polls showingthat more than 70 percent of Ger-mans are opposed to the coun-try’s existing 4,000-troop commit-ment. Polls show similar resist-ance in Italy, France and Spain.

Mr. Brown said the reluctanceof some troop contributors to ac-cept their share of the fightinghas weakened the resolve of oth-ers in the 103,000-troop coalitionand prompted them to considerwithdrawing from the conflict. Hementioned Canada and the Neth-erlands, which have been in-volved in the bloody fighting inHelmand Province, and Japan.

The Brown speech was certainto have been closely watched inWashington, where PresidentObama faces a quandary similarto Mr. Brown’s, with liberals inthe Democratic Party and othersincreasingly in opposition to theAmerican commitment in Af-ghanistan. Britain, with 9,100troops, is the second largesttroop contributor to the coalition,behind 63,000 Americans, andany hint that Britain might recon-sider its commitment could sendother nations hastening to theexit.

For Mr. Brown, who returnedFriday from a brief visit to Britishtroops and talks in Kabul withAmerican commanders, thespeech had broader overtones. Itcomes at a time when domesticcritics have assailed him for un-dermining relations with theUnited States with his govern-ment’s actions over the release ofthe only man convicted in the1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing.

The 57-year-old prime minister

made no mention of the freeing ofAbdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, re-leased two weeks ago by theScottish government on compas-sionate parole from a life sen-tence for his role in the deaths of270 people, including 189 Ameri-cans, who were killed in thebombing. Many in Britain haveseen Mr. Megrahi’s release as themost damaging event in relationswith the United States in dec-ades.

But critics at home have ac-cused Mr. Brown of duplicity forallowing officials of his govern-ment to assure the United Statesthat Mr. Megrahi would serve outhis term in Scotland while high-level British emissaries were tell-ing the Libyan government he fa-vored Mr. Megrahi’s going hometo die from his terminal prostate

cancer. Mr. Brown used his ap-pearance before the Internation-al Institute for Strategic Studiesin London to address the issue in-directly.

“I am confident that the alli-ance between Britain and theUnited States is stronger thanever,” he said.

But on Afghanistan, the primeminister is at an awkward cross-roads. Opinion polls have detect-ed a rising unease about the waramong Britons in the wake of awave of British military casual-ties, including 50 soldiers killed inthe past four months. The Britishlosses have tracked a similar risein American deaths.

Recent polls have shown about60 percent of those questioned inBritain opposing Britain’s Af-ghan involvement — a sharpturnaround from polls taken inthe conflict’s early years, whenBritish casualties were low. WithLabour trailing the oppositionConservatives by wide marginsin voter preferences for a generalelection next spring , Mr. Brown

can ill afford to align himself withpolicies that alienate Labour’spopular base.

On the eve of Friday’s speech,he had what amounted to an ear-ly warning. Eric Joyce, a Labourlawmaker who was an aide toBob Ainsworth, the defense min-ister, resigned abruptly over Af-ghanistan. Mr. Joyce, 49, who waspreviously an army officer, saidin a letter to the prime ministerthat Britain should set a date forwithdrawing its troops, since thepublic would not “accept formuch longer that our losses canbe justified by simply referring tothe risk of greater terrorism onour streets.”

In his speech, Mr. Brown ac-knowledged that most people inBritain were anxious to knowhow long their troops would stayin Afghanistan, but he said itwould depend on how quickly theAfghan Army could take over thefighting. He said he had used hismeeting over the weekend withGen. Stanley A. McChrystal, theUnited States and NATO com-mander, to press for a six-monthspeedup, to November 2010, inthe deadline for increasing theAfghan Army to 134,000 troopsfrom its present level of 80,000.

The prime minister hinted, too,that he had told General Mc-Chrystal that Britain was notlikely to agree to send moretroops of its own if Americancommanders asked. Mr. Brownsaid he was pleased that GeneralMcChrystal agreed with the Brit-ish view that the way to meet theTaliban challenge was to trainmore Afghan troops, and to do itmore swiftly, an effort Mr. Brownsaid Britain planned to make alarger part of its own Afghan ef-fort.

Premier Reaffirms Britain’s Afghan Role, but Seeks More NATO Aid

POOL PHOTO BY SHAUN CURRY

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, right, and DefenseMinister Bob Ainsworth took questions in London on Friday.

An appeal unlikely tohave much influenceon Europe’s leaders.

Judy Dempsey contributed re-porting from Berlin.

For a full discussion of theissues surrounding

publication of the photographs,see the Lens blog:http:lens.blogs.nytimes.com

ONLINE: DIFFICULT CHOICES

with the Afghan people.”Two 14-year-old boys and one

10-year-old boy were admitted tothe regional hospital here in Kun-duz, along with a 16-year-old wholater died. Mahboubullah Sayedi,a spokesman for the Kunduz pro-vincial governor, said most of theestimated 90 dead were militants,judging by the number of charredpieces of Kalashnikov riflesfound. But he said civilians werealso killed.

In explaining the civiliandeaths, military officials specu-lated that local people were con-scripted by the Taliban to unloadthe fuel from the tankers, whichwere stuck near a river severalmiles from the nearest villages.

But some people wounded bythe strike said that they had goneto the scene with jerrycans afterother people had run throughtheir villages saying that free fuelwas available.

“They were just telling us,‘Come and get the fuel,’” WazirGul, a 23-year-old farmer, said atthe hospital, where he was treat-ed for serious burns on his back.He estimated that hundreds ofpeople from surrounding villageswent to siphon fuel from thetrucks before the airstrike.

Mr. Gul said his older brotherAmir was among the villagers in-cinerated in the blast. “When thetanker exploded and burned, Iknew he was dead,” Mr. Gul said.

The wounded 10-year-old, Sha-fiullah, who like many Afghansgoes by only one name, said hehad defied his father’s orders byclimbing on the family donkey tojoin the throng of villagers head-ing to pick up fuel.

“When I arrived there, I wason the donkey,” Shafiullah,wounded in his arms and legs,said from his hospital bed. “I wasnot very close. I had not gottenthe fuel yet when the bomb land-ed and the shrapnel injured me.”

German forces in northern Af-ghanistan under the NATO com-mand called in the attack, andGerman military officials initiallyinsisted that no civilians hadbeen killed. But a Defense Min-istry spokesman in Berlin latersaid the ministry believed thatmore than 50 fighters had been

killed but could give no detailsabout civilian casualties.

The public health officer forKunduz Province, Dr. AzizullahSafar, said a medical team sent tothe village reported that 80 peo-ple had been killed, and he said

that “most of them were civiliansand villagers.”

But he said it was also clearthat some of the dead were mil-itants, noting that the site wasscattered with remnants of am-munition vests and other gear

carried by insurgents.A statement issued by the of-

fice of the Afghan president, Ha-mid Karzai, said that he was“deeply saddened” and that hehad sent a delegation to investi-gate. “Targeting civilian men and

women is not acceptable,” thestatement added.

Afghan officials said the attackstruck a collection of hamletsknown as Omar Kheil, near theborder of the districts of CharDara and Ali Abad. The district

governor of Ali Abad, Hajji Habi-bullah, said the area was con-trolled by Taliban commanders.

The Kunduz area was oncecalm, but much of it has recentlyslipped under the control of in-surgents at a time when the Oba-ma administration has sent thou-sands of more troops to otherparts of the country to combat aninsurgency that continues to gainstrength in many areas.

The region is patrolled mainlyby NATO’s 4,000-member Ger-man force, which is barred byGerman leaders from operatingin combat zones farther south.The United States has 68,000troops in Afghanistan, more thanany other nation; other countriesfighting under the NATO com-mand have a combined total ofabout 40,000 troops here.

If a high number of civilian cas-ualties is confirmed, it is likely tonot only deepen antipathy to-ward NATO forces in Afghani-stan, but also further diminishsupport for the war in Germany,where it is already unpopular. Itcould also become an issue in thecoming German election asChancellor Angela Merkel triesto win a second term.

A senior NATO official who hadwatched aerial surveillance videoof the attack site said the Ger-mans who ordered the strike“had every reason to believewhat they were looking at wasgroups of insurgents offloadingtankers,” a process that went onfor several hours.

The official said that the near-est villages were two miles awayand that the authorities “don’tknow yet” whether the attack vi-olated the rules governing theuse of airstrikes tightened thissummer by General McChrystal.

According to the new rules, air-strikes are, in most cases, al-lowed only to prevent Americanand other coalition troops frombeing overrun by enemy fighters.Even in the case of active fire-fights with Taliban forces, air-strikes are to be limited if thecombat is taking place in populat-ed areas.

From initial accounts given byNATO and Afghan officials, it wasnot clear whether this strike metthose conditions, regardless ofwhether the majority of the deadwere insurgents or civilians.

On Friday, Foreign SecretaryDavid Miliband of Britain calledfor a “prompt and urgent investi-gation.”

“It is a vital time for NATO andAfghanistan’s people to come to-gether,” he told Sky News.

NATO Airstrike Magnifies Political Divide Over the War in AfghanistanFrom Page A1

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Afghan villagers on Friday buried one of the victims of a NATO airstrike near Kunduz that officials said killed up to 90 people.

WAHDAT/REUTERS

CHAR DARADISTRICT

KUNDUZPROVINCE

TAJIKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN

ALI ABADDISTRICT

Kunduz

Approximate site of airstrikeOmarKheil

Kunduz River

Panj RiverMiles 20

AFGHANISTAN

Area ofdetail

THE NEW YORK TIMES

NATO officials said the attack hit two fuel tankers near Omar Kheil, at the border of the districts of Char Dara and Ali Abad.

Reporting was contributed by Ab-dul Waheed Wafa from Kabul, Af-ghanistan; Sultan M. Munadifrom Kunduz; Judy Dempseyfrom Berlin; and Sharon Otter-man from New York.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —Eight civilian security guards atthe United States Embassy in Af-ghanistan were fired and two re-signed following accusations oflewd behavior and sexual mis-conduct at their living quarters.

The Kabul senior managementteam of ArmorGroup NorthAmerica, the private contractorthat provides guards for the StateDepartment, was also “being re-placed immediately,” the embas-sy said Friday in a statement.

The fired guards, who left Af-ghanistan on Friday, all appearedin photographs that depictedguards and supervisors in vari-ous stages of nudity at partieswhere alcohol flowed, the embas-sy said. Their names and nation-alities were not released; nearlytwo-thirds of the 450 embassyguards are Gurkhas from Nepaland northern India.

The State Department spokes-man, Ian C. Kelly, said in Wash-ington that the government hadmade it clear to ArmorGroup thatthe guards in the photographsmust go. He also said that theState Department had insistedthat Armor Group replace itsmanagement team on theground.

The scandal surfaced this weekwhen an independent watchdoggroup, the Project on Govern-ment Oversight, said the embas-sy guards were subjected toabuse and hazing by supervisors.

Embassy GuardsIn Kabul Are Fired

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

A furious Defense SecretaryRobert M. Gates has upbraidedThe Associated Press for its deci-sion to go against the wishes of ayoung Marine’s family and pub-lish a photograph of him after hewas killed in Afghanistan.

In a scathing letter to Tom Cur-

ley, president and chief executiveof The A.P., Mr. Gates said thatthe news agency’s decision was“appalling” and that the issuewas one not of constitutionalitybut of “judgment and commondecency.”

The A.P. defended the decision,which editors said they madeonly after careful review andsharing the pictures with thefamily. In an explanation of itsdeliberations, The A.P. said it de-cided “to make public an imagethat conveys the grimness of warand the sacrifice of young menand women fighting it.”

The publication of such dra-matic images has been relatively

rare, partly because journalistsare not often on hand to see suchevents and because militaryguidelines, which The A.P. fol-lowed, bar the showing of pic-tures of dead soldiers before thefamily is notified.

The photograph in questionwas part of a package of articlesand photographs about LanceCpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, ofNew Portland, Me., and his unit,which was ambushed in Afghani-stan on Aug. 14. Before sendingthe package to its newspaper cli-ents, The A.P. sent a reporter toMaine to talk with the man’s fam-ily. They did so out of respect, Mi-chael Oreskes, The A.P.’s senior

managing editor, said in an in-terview, not to ask permission topublish the pictures. But the fa-ther, John Bernard, a former Ma-rine, asked The A.P. not to pub-lish the picture, saying it wouldonly hurt the family more.

In an advisory to clients, TheA.P. said its articles and pho-tographs “offered vivid insightsinto how the battle was fought,and into Bernard’s character andbackground.” After the articlesand pictures had been distributedbut before they were published,Mr. Gates called Mr. Curley tourge him to change his mind.

“I am begging you to defer tothe wishes of the family,” Mr.

Gates said, according to hisspokesman. Shortly after hang-ing up, Mr. Gates sent his letter.

“The American people under-stand that death is an awful andinescapable part of war,” Mr.Gates wrote. But publishing thisphoto, he said, goes against thewishes of the family and thuswould mark an “unconscionabledeparture from the restraint thatmost journalists and publicationshave shown covering the militarysince Sept. 11.”

A few newspapers have pub-lished the picture, and manymore have not. The New YorkTimes published the photographon its Web site.

Gates Assails News Agency for Publishing Photo of Marine Killed in Afghanistan

By The New York Times

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan —Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother ofPresident Hamid Karzai of Af-ghanistan, rejected accusationson Friday that his aides had de-tained a tribal leader and closedpolling stations to stuff ballotboxes in his brother’s favor dur-ing recent presidential elections.

The allegations were made bythe district chief of Shorabak,Delaga Bariz, and other eldersfrom his tribe in an interview.

Ahmad Wali Karzai is the headof the provincial council of Kan-dahar and was running to retainthe post in the elections held Aug.20.

In Kandahar, he said his accus-ers had accepted money from thepresidential challenger AbdullahAbdullah to campaign for him,and had concocted a story whenthey failed to bring in the votesthat they promised.

Afghan Fraud Denied

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