Hyderabad: The American media has come under strong criticism over its coverage of the recent Kabul blasts in which over 180 people were killed.
Soon after the incident hit the headlines across the world, what disappointed many was the US media’s coverage of the deadly attack. From The Washington Post to The Wall Street Journal, the US media’s blatant downplay of the Afghan victims didn’t go unnoticed.
Many pointed out the fact that the same US media, which was head over heels about human rights and democracy in Afghanistan just days ago, completely ignored to mention over 170 Afghans killed in the terror attack in their headlines.
“Kabul blast kill at least 13 U.S. troops,” read the headline of The Washington Post front page on August 27. On the same day, The Wall Street Journal wrote “Blasts kill at least 13 U.S. troops” on its front page.
Similarly, other newspapers too completely disregarded the Afghan lives. The front-page headline of The Boston globe read “13 US troops dead in Afghan blasts”, while the Chicago Tribune wrote “13 U.S troops die in Kabul blasts”.
On August 26, two devastating bomb blasts ripped through a crowd who were trying to enter Kabul airport as the evacuation process was underway. The suicide bombing, claimed by ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), killed around 170 Afghans and 13 US troops. A few hundred people were also injured.
In his remarks hours after the attack, US President Joe Biden also chose to focus his attention on the 13 US troops, while hardly acknowledging the Afghan lives lost. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said when delivering remarks from the White House that day.
The British media too was accused of downplaying the Afghan lives. John Sifton of the Human Rights Watch posted a screenshot of The Daily Telegraph in which the headline read “Twelve US Troops die in Kabul blasts”.
“Almost 100 Afghans died but this British newspaper decided that only the Americans mattered,” Sifton wrote.
Many killed by US troops
The BBC quoted several eyewitnesses saying that a significant number of those killed during the terror attack were shot dead by American soldiers in panic after the blast.
George Galloway of the worker’s party in Britain claimed that many of the 100 were killed by Americans.
BBC journalist Secunder Kermani also posted a video clip confirming the same.