Afghanistan - BBC caught fabricating civilian death report

Here is another example of the BBC spreading the Taleban's propaganda.

First the BBC tells us that "witnesses" told the BBC the number of casualties.

"About 50 Afghan civilians have been wounded in an air strike by US-led forces on a group of Taleban leaders holding a meeting in Helmand province.

Witnesses have told the BBC that a large number of civilians were killed."

Did you catch that subtle difference? First the BBC states as fact that "50 Afghan civilians have been wounded." In the next sentence the BBC says "a large number of civilians were killed." Leaving you with the impression that 50 were killed. And who are the witnesses?

So why did the BBC state as fact that 50 were wounded?

"The coalition gave no word of casualties, but a BBC reporter in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, says about 50 people were admitted to hospital there with injuries."

Go that? "A BBC reporter says" 50 people were admitted with injuries. So according to this BBC reporter he's reporting what he saw. This will become important in a minute. But what happened to the large number of dead civilians? The BBC reporter doesn't say. But the BBC do go on to drive home the point of civilan casualties again.

"The injured said they had been at a market when the bombardment happened and that there had been a large number of civilian deaths.

Helmand's police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, confirmed that wounded civilians had been admitted to hospital."

The BBC add weight to their report with comments from NATO and Karzai concerning civilian casualties. And the BBC throw in this bit that struck me as odd. "I can confirm there were heavy bombardments," he told the Reuters news agency. " Why is the BBC quoting something he said to another news agency? Why not quote him direct? Because the Reuters report contradicts the BBC's version, as do other accounts I'll get to in a minute. The Reuters headline is totally the opposite of what the BBC report: "Few civilian deaths from Afghan bombing-officials".

Here comes the first BBC lie.

"The following day, Afghan authorities said they were checking reports of civilian casualties in the raid and said some 20 wounded had been brought to the main hospital in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.

British forces said 17 adult males and an eight-year-old boy were in hospital in Lashkar Gah suffering from blast injuries. The Afghan Defence Ministry said some 40 men had also been brought to hospital in the main southern city of Kandahar."

So Afghan and British forces both say there were around 20 brought to Lashkar Gah and yet the BBC reporter says he saw 50. But what else did the BBC leave out that would reveal the truth?

"It is interesting there were no females," said British Lieutenant-Colonel Charlie Mayo, suggesting the wounded adult males may have been Taliban fighters. "We are very confident we hit a large meeting of Taliban and they are very sore about it."

He said there was a large group of armed men gathered to watch the execution of six Afghans accused of cooperating with the government."

Sore enough to tell the BBC that they were civlians and the anti war BBC ate it up.

Reuters isn't the only new agency reporting pertinent information the BBC leaves out and reports the opposite of what the BBC report. The New York Times reports the opposite of what the BBC is reporting. "Local officials said that at least 18 Afghans were wounded in the attack." Note that says "wounded".

Compare the Times reporting of the provincial police chief, Muhammad Hussain Andiwal's words with how the BBC portray it.

“The people say there were many people there,” the provincial police chief, Muhammad Hussain Andiwal, said in a telephone interview. “The Taliban were also in great numbers; some 16 to 17 vehicles belonging to the Taliban were present at the scene. There must be heavy casualties to the Taliban.”

“We have information from the wounded people who were brought to Bost Hospital in Lashkar Gah that the Taliban brought two men accused of spying and they were going to execute them publicly, and they forced the people to come and watch them,” the police chief said. “I don’t know the exact number of civilian casualties.”

Notice how the BBC left out the large number of Taleban present and the 16 to 17 vehicles. Notice also how the BBC left out the fact that a few civilians were forced to attend. Just add this to the growing list of BBC fabrications.

via Biased BBC

Update.

I recently caught the BBC fabricating a similar story.