Two recent news reports provide an updated overview of the civilian casualty situation in Afghanistan. In recent months there has been a sharp increase in the rate of civilian casualties, caused by both insurgents and by U.S. and NATO forces. The good news, if any news about civilian casualties can be considered good, is that the proportion of civilian deaths caused by U.S., NATO, and Afghan military forces has fallen. A higher proportion of recent Afghan civilian deaths have been caused by Taliban actions. Nonetheless, after a recent NATO air strike that may have killed civilians, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on foreign forces to make even more of an effort to avoid civilian casualties.
Associated Press, 30 June 2008
Afghan Civilian Deaths up 60 Percent
by Stephen Graham, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has soared by two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior U.N. official said Sunday.
The figures are a grim reminder of how the nearly seven-year war has failed to stabilize the country and suggest that ordinary civilians are bearing a heavy toll, particularly from stepped-up militant attacks.
John Holmes, the world body’s humanitarian affairs chief, said … “Most of those casualties are caused by the insurgents, who seem to have no regard for civilian life, but there are also still significant numbers caused by the international military forces,” he said.
Holmes said … 698 civilians have died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year. That compares to 430 in the first six months of 2007, a rise of 62 percent. Militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties, while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the U.N. numbers. …
Holmes said the proportion of civilian casualties caused by security forces had dropped from nearly half last year and that clashes had become less dangerous to ordinary Afghans.
“It is clear that the international military forces are making every effort to minimize civilian casualties and recognize the damage this does and want to deal with that,” he said. “Nevertheless these problems are still there and we need to deal with them and make sure that the safety of civilians comes first and international humanitarian law is respected by everybody.”
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Afghan leaders including President Hamid Karzai have accused NATO and the U.S.-led coalition of recklessly endangering civilians by using excessive force, including airstrikes, in residential areas.
Foreign commanders insist they take all reasonable precautions to avoid killing innocents and say militants routinely fire on them from houses and flee into villages.
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Associated Press, 6 July 2008
Afghanistan Orders Investigation Into US Attack
by Rahim Faiez, Associated Press
Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s president has ordered an investigation into allegations that missiles from U.S. helicopters struck civilians, though the Ministry of Defense said Sunday that the attack killed or wounded 20 militants. …
The issue of civilians casualties has caused friction between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops in the past, and it has weakened the standing of the Western-backed Karzai in the eyes of the population. Karzai has repeatedly called for better coordination between Afghan and foreign troops in pursuing militants through populated areas, and he has pleaded for international troops to cut down on civilian casualties. Deaths of ordinary Afghans caused a huge outcry in summer of 2007, but there have been fewer accusations of such killings in recent months.
Karzai’s statement quoted allegations from Gov. Tamin Nuristani, the governor of Nuristan province, as saying that 15 civilians were killed and seven wounded.
However, the Ministry of Defense on Sunday said up to 20 militants were killed and wounded in an air attack in Kunar province Friday. … [B]oth statements referred to the same incident.
The U.S.-led coalition insists those killed were militants who had previously attacked a NATO base with mortars. …
Meanwhile, the chief government official in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province said villagers reported that between 30 and 35 people walking in a group toward a wedding were killed in a bombing early Sunday. Up to 10 others were wounded, he said. Haji Amishah Gul said the group … included men, women and children…
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The U.S.-led coalition said an airstrike killed several militants in Nangarhar. Spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said he had no reports that civilians were among those killed.
Karzai’s statement appeared to indicate that Afghan civilians were fleeing in cars during the time of Friday’s airstrike by coalition helicopters because of a warning from the U.S. coalition.
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More than 2,100 people – mostly militants – have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year. More than 8,000 people died in attacks last year, according to the U.N., the most since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
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July 22, 2008 at 9:52 pm |
Although we Germans pay annually about 6 billion Euros for our public broadcasting system, the Germany wide public radio station Deutschlandfunk told us only about the deaths caused by U.S. and NATO troops and that the Afghan population becomes increasingly angry at those. This is another example of the continuous deliberate misinformation by our public broadcaster (which I have complained about in several open letters to Ernst Elitz, its “Intendant”, a representative of “Generation 68″).
Peace Pundit is for free and gives us the correct picture.
The internet is eroding the basis of an entire establishment in our country, the dogmatic social democratic ideology characterized by a political cynicism and e.g. anti-Americanism. As to my experience this negative value system is held by the majority of West-Germans (as opposed to East Germans) of my “Generation 68″, who didn’t have the priviledge to spend a decade in the U.S.