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Suicide bombs tearing at ordinary Afghan families
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-12 16:33 While the numbers do not break down responsibility for the deaths attributed to NATO-led forces, the US in particular has been criticized for causing civilian deaths when carrying out airstrikes. One of the most deadly occurred August 22, in western Afghanistan where an Afghan government commission found that some 90 civilians, including children, were killed. The US, after denying that civilians had died, now says 33 civilians were killed.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, along with humans rights organizations, has condemned the US for such actions and says they need to exercise more caution. While suicide attacks and their Afghan victims garner headlines for a day, the repercussions for families are relentless. Ali left behind eight children and a wife. Only his two eldest sons, both of whom work in a candy factory, make any solid income, about $180 a month combined. His youngest children sit on the floor of the family's spartan one-room home and weave carpets, child labor that would be illegal in the West. "Life is hard for us now," Khaliq Dad, Ali's 12-year-old son, said while weaving carpets with his sisters. "When my father was alive he was the provider in our family. But now we will have to work on our own." Ali had worked for the municipality for two years, earning $80 a month on a team of men who swept Kabul's streets. His salary didn't even cover the $100 a month rent on the family's mud-brick house. "I don't think that my brothers and sister can go to school any more, it seems more difficult to me now," said Mir Dad, an 18-year-old brother who works at the candy factory. "Our father's martyrdom will have a negative effect on our lives. We lost our father and our supporter." In a second suicide attack in Kabul late last month, a car bomb exploded about 200 yards from the US Embassy. The Interior Ministry said a convoy of foreign troops was the target, but the only people killed were three Afghans, including another municipality worker, Abdul Sameh. Sameh, 40, left behind six children, his wife and his mother, who lives with the family. His wife, 30-year-old Shaima, who goes by one name, is now in a desperate situation. She said she has no firewood for the winter even as Kabul's harshest season is beginning to set in. "My children have no clothes. I don't know what will happen with my children," she said. "Two of my children were at school, but they can't go to school any more. It is difficult for me to feed them. How would it be possible for me to pay their school expenses?" |
