'US Troops Kill Five Iraqi Bystanders'

Iraqis witnessing the arrival of US infantrymen on their rooftop have lost their lives after their house came under a bloody attack by the American troops.

The Friday attack took place in al-Khanafsa area, south of Baghdad and near the holy city of Karbala, witnesses said, according to Reuters.

"The US troops came from here on foot patrol…," said one witness. "When they arrived, a man went to the roof of his house to look at them, they intentionally opened fire at him as they saw him and his wife who went upstairs to check what happened."

"They walked directly to the house after this," where they killed three other family members, the witness added.'

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'US Cluster Bombs Killed 55 in Yemen'

Amnesty International says the United States used cluster bombs on a cruise missile in Yemen, killing 55 people, most of whom were civilians.

The attack, according to the rights group, targeted Al-Maajala in the Abyan province at a time when Washington was pushing hard to project militants in the country.

"Amnesty International is gravely concerned by evidence that cluster munitions appear to have been used in Yemen," said Mike Lewis, the group's arms control researcher, AFP reported.'

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CIA to Expand Drone Raids in Pakistan

The CIA has received authorization to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan by its drone-guided missiles, despite national discontent on growing civilian death toll.

The US will expand its drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal regions, including low-level fighters whose identities may not be known, US officials said Wednesday, quoted in a Reuters report.

The report says the targets include what has been described as 'all militants'.

The US drone strikes began to expand under former President George Bush and have further intensified under President Barack Obama.

Washington claims the strikes are vital in protecting foreign troops in the region and that the targets are selected with 'extreme care'.

The announcement comes as more than 850 people, mostly civilians, have been reported killed in nearly 100 raids by American pilotless planes since August 2008.

In 2009, the CIA launched 44 strikes in North and South Waziristan but managed to kill no more than a handful of notable militants, Anti-War.com reported on its January 14th edition.

Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the strikes, saying they threaten the country's sovereignty, with little impact, since the US raids have continued to intensify.'

Source: Press TV

Pakistan Air Strike 'Kills 71 Civilians'

At least 71 civilians were killed by a misdirected air strike in Pakistan's tribal zone against suspected extremists, locals claimed today, as thousands of people flee a western-backed military offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the area.

The air strike hit a house on Saturday in a remote part of the Khyber area of the tribal belt, the lawless region that borders Afghanistan. This week, the United Nations warned that more than 200,000 new refugees had been created by Pakistan's latest anti-Taliban offensive, this time mostly from Orakzai, which borders Khyber to the south.'

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Evidence Mounts NATO Report Lied on Afghan Civilian Killings

The February 12 night raid against a house party in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province remains shrouded in mystery, but NATO’s official story appears to be crumbling as even NATO officials concede that the claims made were not strictly true.

NATO’s official statement claimed at the time that the raid on the home led to a “fire fight” against “several insurgents” who were killed, before NATO made a “gruesome discovery” of bound and gagged bodies in a nearby room.

NATO is conceding now that all of the slain people were civilians killed in the raid. NATO communications direct Rear Admiral Greg Smith also admitted that they had no real evidence that the men slain at the home had ever fired a shot against the NATO forces.'

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US Blitz Kills 27, Injures 15 Afghan Civilians

Fresh air strikes by the United States have killed at least 27 civilians and injured 15 others in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan interior ministry says. US-led forces said that they fired by mistake on a group of vehicles that carried women and children.'

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NATO: Afghan Civilians Not Killed by Accident

A British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan insists that the strike that killed a dozen civilians last weekend, in fact, hit its intended target.

Major General Nick Carter said on Tuesday that the launched rockets did not veer off course, as previously claimed, but had struck the intended mark.

"We know now that the missile arrived at the target it was supposed to arrive at. It wasn't a rogue missile. There was no technical fault in it," Reuters quoted Carter as saying.'

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In Yemen, Saudi jets Bomb Civilian Areas

Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi warplanes have carried out several attacks on residential areas in the country's beleaguered north.

In a statement released on Sunday, the fighters said that Saudi jets launched over 30 airstrikes on villages in the northern parts of the country.

Saudi forces have also fired some 660 rockets and artillery rounds at civilian areas along the border, websites close to the fighters reported.'

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