Beijing-Sana
The Chinese Foreign Ministry today called for an investigation into the killings of civilians committed by the US forces and their allies during the 20 years of their occupation of Afghanistan under the pretext of the war on terror that it created after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
"The US military has left Afghanistan, but the civilian killings they committed with their allies over the past 20 years must be thoroughly investigated, and the killers must be held accountable," Chinese newspaper "Global Times" quoted the ministry's spokesman, Wang Wenbin, as saying in a briefing.
Wang added that recent statistics showed that at least 47,245 civilians were killed in Afghanistan since the start of the US-led war until April 2020.
Wang stressed the need to protect the lives of the Afghan people and defend their rights, noting that international justice, the rule of law and the global development of human rights are under threat.
Wang's comments came after US strikes in Kabul that killed civilians in the past few days and in the latest tragedy last Sunday, when at least 10 people, including children, were killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Wang said the killing of Afghan civilians by US forces had happened repeatedly and cited several examples, including that in 2019, a US drone killed at least 30 Afghan farmers in Nangarhar province.
As a former US soldier and drone pilot said in testimony to a UN panel of experts, the drone strikes were just kill for the sake of killing and that US air strikes killed far more Afghan civilians than official US government statistics.
In 2015, NATO fighter jets attacked an Afghan anti-drug police force on a mission, killing 15 of them.
Yesterday, the Pentagon announced the completion of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan after a 20-year invasion and occupation under the pretext of fighting terrorism to end its military presence, which caused chaos and destruction throughout Afghanistan and plunged the country into a cycle of violence and terrorism of Washington's own creation.