Nato troops are retreating from Musa Qala, the town in southern Afghanistan where Gabriele Torsello photographed the effects of allied bombardment just before his kidnapping. British General David Richards, Commander of the allied mission in Afghanistan, announced that 120 of Her Majesty’s soldiers are leaving the area because, “security has been reestablished in the zone,” and “there have been no armed confrontations for 35 days now.”

Nato in Trouble. But the truth is not so simple. The Taleban threatened to attack the city if the English didn’t leave it. Local leaders thus requested the departure of alliance troops so as to avoid further bloodshed and bombing, an offer the British officials were glad to accept, because their men have reached the limit. General Ed Butler, commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, condemned the worsening situation in the south: rising casualties, low troop morale, even a shortage of food and munitions.
General Richards not only denied having made any agreement with the Taleban – despite British news reports to the contrary – he also lied in saying that armed conflict and bombing have stopped in Musa Qala.

Hamida, victim of US bombs. It’s the word of the general against the trembling of a little girl from Musa Qala named Hamida, who won’t speak during the day but wakes at night screaming, “Run, escape, the airplanes are coming!” Her body is torn with wounds from bomb shrapnel. Her father carried her to the Emergency hospital at Lashkargah on Monday morning. He says, “About eight p.m. on Sunday the planes came back and dropped bombs. We can’t take it anymore!” Hamida couldn’t be treated in the clinic at Musa Qala because it doesn’t exist anymore, destroyed by Nato bombs. Not knowing about Emergency’s hospital, Hamida’s father first took her to a clinic in Lashkargah, where he paid to have her wounds sealed, but the doctors didn’t first remove the shrapnel.

The Bombing Never Stops. More wounded civilians came to the Emergency hospital from Grishk, a hamlet just south of Musa Qala. They reported that last night, after hours of gunfire between Taleban and British forces, Nato bombers flew in. Nabi Jan, a resident of the village of Tajakano, near Grishk, described how an air-launched missile struck his house, killing thirteen members of his family.
The same night, residents of the village of Ashgho in the Zahri district, near Kandahar, told reporters that nine townspeople, including women and children, were killed by Nato bombing. Euan Downie, spokesperson for the alliance forces, confirmed the aerial raids but said he had received, “no news about civilian victims.” More bombs were dropped during the same raids in the area of Kamdesh, in the eastern province of Nuristan. Alliance commanders reported having killed fourteen “Taleban.” 500-pound bombs dropped from American bomber jets killed another 16 presumed Taleban yesterday afternoon.

And Now, “Operation Eagle.” As though all this weren’t enough, now General Richards has announced a new anti-Taleban military offensive, code-named “Operation Eagle.” He offered no details.