The Hindu : Labour MPs call for end to Afghan bombing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002

International

International

Labour MPs call for end to Afghan bombing

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 2. Labour MPs today joined peace activists to call for an end to the bombing in Afghanistan amid an angry reaction here to the latest incident in which at least 30 people were feared to have been killed when a wedding party was wrongly targeted by U.S.bombers.

The incident fuelled the growing unease over U.S. tactics in Afghanistan, coming as it did barely two days after senior officials in the Blair government were reported questioning the American strategy to hunt down Al-Qaeda militants. They were quoted as saying that the U.S. "march-in-shooting'' approach was "backfiring'' and resulting in more support for Al-Qaeda, especially in tribal areas.

On Tuesday, Labour MP, Alice Mahon, demanded a "full international inquiry'' into the incident and an immediate halt to the bombing. "The Americans have to realise that when they operate this kind of war, this will inevitably happen. Their intelligence before has been absolutely wrong. One warlord is feeding off another, passing wrong information, '' she said.

Another ruling party MP, Alan Simpson, said such incidents had made a "mockery'' of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. He called for a review of the way the war was being conducted in Afghanistan in order to avoid this "sort of catastrophic misjudgment happening again and again.''

Anti-war groups stepped up their campaign against British support to the continuing U.S. bombing in Afghanistan even as the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, came under pressure from his own partymen to review his "shoulder-to-shoulder'' solidarity with Washington in view of its increasingly `hostile' stand vis-a-vis Europe on a range of issues, the latest being its opposition to the International Criminal Court and its veto on extending the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

Russian pilot's error led to collision?

LTTE to help restore normality in east

U.S. surveillance equipment for Pak.

Real IRA `wants' to give up

S. Korea warns North against intrusion

Fossett completes solo balloon quest

U.S. mission to probe civilian deaths in Afghanistan

Labour MPs call for end to Afghan bombing

Musharraf moves face stiff resistance

Hoon meets Afghan officials

UJC 'warning' to Hurriyat