NEW YORK, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The Pentagon's investigation into deadly airstrikes in Afghanistan in August 2008 was flawed, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the rights organization was critical of the investigation by Brig. Gen. Michael Callan, who probed the Aug. 21 and Aug. 22 airstrikes on the village of Azizabad.
The Callan report summary concluded 33 civilians had been killed in the Azizabad airstrikes. Human Rights Watch said separate investigations by the United Nations, the government of Afghanistan, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission concluded that 78 to 92 civilians were killed in the airstrikes.
"The weaknesses in the Callan investigation call into question the Defense Department's commitment to avoid civilian casualties," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Unless the new Obama administration urgently addresses the U.S. military's airstrike practices in Afghanistan, more unnecessary civilian deaths and injuries will result."
