Afghan Civilian Deaths Rise 33% in April 2010

Recent reports from Afghanistan indicate that civilian casualties there — including deaths — have risen sharply in recent months.

One cause of this increase is the Obama Administration’s troop “surge” in Afghanistan and its recent stepped-up military campaigns to clear the Taliban from certain areas, resulting in more battles between insurgents and US/NATO/Afghan troops, which in turn results in more civilians being caught in the crossfire. As in previous time periods, most of the civilian casualties are caused by suicide attacks and roadside bombs set by the Taliban, but the number caused by US/NATO/Afhghan forces has also risen.

This suggests that the Obama administration’s hope that civilian casualties can be minimized during the military actions is overly optimistic.

Excerpts from relevant news reports follow.

Civilian Deaths Spike in Afghanistan

by Laura King, LA Times, Monday, May 3 2010

Kabul — Civilian deaths in the last month jumped by one-third over the same period a year ago, the Afghan government said Sunday.

…

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said 173 civilians were killed between March 21 and April 21. That represented a 33 percent increase from the same dates in 2009, ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary told a news conference in Kabul.

Bashary said the deaths, coupled with the injuries of 380 civilians, were largely caused by explosions — either suicide bombings or roadside bombs.

…

U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of all Western troops in Afghanistan, has made safeguarding civilian lives a top priority. But military officials acknowledge that noncombatants are often caught in harm’s way during upsurges in battlefield activity, such as the fighting earlier this year in Helmand province, where U.S. Marines seized the Taliban stronghold of Marjah.

…

[Read entire story]

NATO checks report of Afghan civilian deaths

by Ismail Sameem and Peter Graff, REUTERS, May 1 2010

KANDAHAR — NATO said … it was investigating whether shots fired by its troops in southern Afghanistan had killed two women and a child traveling in car.

A spokesman for the governor of Zabul province said the passengers were shot Friday while driving toward a roadblock where a combined group of NATO and Afghan troops were trying to disable a roadside bomb.

…

A spokesman for NATO …, Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Vician, said troops had reported stopping to assist Afghan police clearing a bomb, and firing warning shots when a vehicle approached. In the troops’ account, the driver stopped, got out of the car, spoke to Afghan police and then drove away, Vician said.

The investigation would try to explain the differences in the two accounts, he added.

…

… recent weeks have seen a spate of so-called “escalation of force” incidents, in which troops open fire at vehicles that approach them. In the past two weeks, troops killed four civilians in a passenger car in Khost province, and killed four people and wounded 18 others after firing on a bus in Kandahar province.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan … described the recent spate of killings as a “disturbing trend.”

[Read entire story]

Peace Pundit