For the second time in less than 24 hours, the US military March 5 acknowledged involvement in an incident that caused multiple civilian deaths in Afghanistan—this time, an air strike that killed nine people from the same family. Afghan authorities say suspected Taliban insurgents targeted a NATO base late March 4 in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul. When the US forces returned fire, they apparently hit a civilian house killing at least five women and several young children. NATO will only say the matter is under investigation. The UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also said it would be issuing its own report on the incident. US officials blamed insurgents for placing civilians in harm's way by deliberately staging attacks certain to draw retaliation. Some 20 Afghan civilians have died since March 4 as a result of attacks from US and NATO forces, and this is provoking anger in Afghanistan. A large protest was held March 5 in Jalalabad, where hundreds of students took to the streets chanting anti-American slogans following the previous day's incident which left at least 10 civilians dead following an attack on a convoy of Marines. Witnesses say US forces kept firing after the insurgents had fled. (Pakistan Tribune, March 7; Radio Free Afghanistan, Toronto Star, March 6)

Another appalling op-ed in the New York Times March 5, this one arguing that an amnesty for war criminals is "good for Afghan democracy." This Orwellian exercise, "New Justice, No Peace," is by Richard May, a fellow with the World Security Institute's Center for Defense Information, and a former captain with the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan's parliament has approved the amnesty law letting all the warlords from all the factions that tore the country apart for a generation totally off the hook. International human rights groups are petitioning President Hamid Karzai not to sign it. While paying patronizing lip service to critics' "humanitarian feelings," May writes that "President Karzai should sign the law—for four good reasons." A very dangerous historical revisionism is clear in May's reasons—portraying the warlords as Cold War heroes.

From CNW Telbec, Canada, March 5:

Reporters Without Borders called for an explanation from the US Army for threats and censorship against Afghan journalists, two of them working for the Associated Press (AP), while covering civilian deaths in shooting by US special forces on the road between Kabul and Jalalabad in the east.

Hmmm, didn't the Brits just invoke "progress" in Basra to justify their planned withdrawal? From Arab Monitor, March 5:

BAGHDAD - In a move to end their Iraqi allies' uncontrolled violence, US and British troops began yesterday to venture into Shiite militia strongholds in Baghdad and Basra. In Basra, British troops are reported to have found some 30 prisoners held in an unaccounted-for prison. Prime Minister Nouri al-Malki hurried to condemn the raid on what he called the Basra security compound and ordered an immediate investigation "to punish those who carried out this illegal and irresponsible act", as voiced out by an official statement released by his office. A woman and her two children are reported to have been found among the prisoners discovered in the Basra facility. The British military command declined to give information about the fate of these captives.

Seven Colombian soldiers and 11 guerillas were killed over the March 3-4 weekend in the heaviest combat in recent months. Gen. Alejandro Navas, commander of the military's Omega joint task force, said engagements began early March 3 with a large column from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Puerto Rico, Meta department, on the eastern plains. (Reuters, March 4)

From Friends of Brad Will, March 1:

Friends of Murdered US Journalist in DC Advocate for Investigation and End to Impunity

The Friends of Brad Will attended the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Oversight Hearing Overview of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America on March 1st to press for the appropriate investigation of the murder of US journalist Brad Will in Oaxaca, Mexico in October of 2006. The Friends of Brad Will is a national network working with the Will family for justice and accountability in his murder, and for an end to the impunity of human rights violations in Oaxaca, Mexico.

For the second time in eight days Feb. 26, teachers from Sections 22 and 59 of the National Education Workers Syndicate (SNTE) clashed over control of Technical Secondary School 172 at Benito Juárez, San Pedro Pochutla municipality, on the coast of southern Mexico's conflicted Oaxaca state. Eleven were injured on both sides, two seriously. Despite an accord to allow the same teachers from the last semester back in regardless of their union affiliation, Section 59 teachers attemped to impede access to Section 22 teachers, sparking the clash. Some 275 schools around the state are said to be similarly divided. (La Jornada, Feb. 27)

Diego Arcos Meneses, an indigenous Chol Maya campesino, has been arrested by Chiapas state police and charged with murder in connection with November's massacre at the rainforest settlement of Viejo Velasco. The Chol campesino organization Xinich protests his innocence. The Xinich statement says Arcos Meneses, 42, is a health promoter and Jesuit "catechist" (lay worker) at the settlement of Nuevo Tila, Ocosingo municipality. "Regrettably in our country such human gestures can be dangerous: solidarity is criminalized while repression walks with impunity," says Xinich, the group believed by rights observers to have actually been targeted in the attack. (Xinich statement, March 4)