More Children Slaughtered in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - An air strike by NATO-led forces killed two children as they were watering fields in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province late on Monday, an Afghan official and lawmaker said.

The deaths occurred weeks after tensions between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers were inflamed by the killing of nine children who were collecting firewood in the same province.

Last year was the most lethal for non-combatants since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, with a 15 percent rise in civilian casualties to 2,777 according to a report by the United Nations last week. The report said insurgents were responsible for three quarters of the deaths.

Abdul Marjan, district chief of Chawki in Kunar where the two brothers, aged 10 and 15, where killed on Monday, said the boys had been working on irrigation channels before they were hit.

"They might have been mistaken for insurgents as they were carrying spades on their shoulders," Marjan told Reuters.

Well, fuck-- they were asking for it, by carrying tools on their shoulders, weren't they?

Please protest against the madness this Saturday.