[Nettime-bold] Re: Fuel destroyed by air strikes in desert swoop

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

I guess they should hire a lawyer and sue US military for 
destroying their property. Still, this is an interesting operation. 
First, because the Special Forces protected their lives. It becomes 
more and more difficult for the US to conduct war. Not only their 
forces aren't allowed to die in battle any more, but now they also 
can't kill anybody. 

And second - because they called in air strikes against oil trucks. 
Couldn't they just destroy the trucks with a cigarette lighter, for 
crying out loud? I mean there was gasoline inside - it doesn't take 
a million dollar cruise missile to destroy an oil truck? Isn't that a 
waste of resources?

ivo

Date sent:      	Wed, 21 Nov 2001 15:21:56 +1100
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From:           	jon cina <jon_cina@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:        	Fuel destroyed by air strikes in desert swoop
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

Today's Guardian carries this story of what is either evidence of the
US/coalition's desire to avoid civilian casualties, or a broad definition of
what constitutes a legitimate target. US ground forces apparently discovered
tanker trucks thought to be carrying "oil for terrorists". After detaining
the drivers and moving them to a safe place, the US troops requested air
strikes to destroy the tankers. They then returned the drivers to the
wreckage of their trucks.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,602849,00.html


Special forces strike in the night - and oil tanker owners lose livelihoods

Fuel destroyed by air strikes in desert swoop

Jonathan Steele in Kandahar province
Wednesday November 21, 2001
The Guardian

It was a quiet night in the desert and the group of tanker drivers were
sleeping by their vehicles after another long day's driving from the Iranian
border.
Suddenly they heard the sound of vehicles crossing the sand in the dark.

"About seven or eight armed men surrounded us. They were talking English,
and all had military uniforms," Shahzada recalled yesterday in Spin Boldak,
about six hours' drive away from where the incident happened.

Some of the intruders had sophisticated night-vision equipment or, as he put
it graphically, "big goggles".

"They grabbed us and tied our hands behind our backs with very tough
plastic," he said.

The men, presumably US special forces, put the drivers in four small
armoured vehicles and took them to a bleak spot in the desert.

Shahzada judged they went about four miles away from their tankers. He and
his friends had no idea what was going to happen next. It was some time
before dawn on November 18.

One of the strangers could speak a few words in Persian. Many Afghans speak
a variety of Persian, known as Dari.

"He accused us of taking oil for terrorists, but we said it wasn't true. The
oil is just for ordinary people," Shahzada explained. "I have been doing
this work for 15 years. We pick the oil up at the border with Iran near
Zahedan, and deliver it here. It's my job.

"We saw one of the men making a telephone call. We didn't know what they
were planning to do," he went on.

As the drivers sat fearfully in the dark wondering what their fate would be,
they heard the sound of aircraft. A huge ball of fire lit up the desert. In
horror the men realised what was going on. All five tankers had been hit by
missiles or bombs.

The attack over, the armed kidnappers took the men back to the wrecks of
their tankers and untied them. Then they disappeared. In its way the whole
episode was remarkably efficient.

Mohammed Akhtar, one of the tanker owners, who was listening as Shahzada
recounted the incident yesterday, admitted his drivers take a route through
the desert to avoid paying tax at various checkpoints they might encounter
on the roads. He had clubbed together with two people to buy his tanker.
Most tankers had three joint owners, because it was too expensive to buy one
on your own.

Shahzada acknowledged that the Americans had gone out of their way to save
their lives by taking them off into the desert before sending in the strike
aircraft to destroy their vehicles.

But he did not see much reason for gratitude. "In a way they were protecting
our lives," he said.

"But they took away our livelihoods." And as far as he was concerned, they
had done nothing to deserve it.

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