Civilian deaths up 40% in Afghanistan

Kabul: The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan's worsening conflict jumped 40% to a new high last year, and more than half of the deaths were inflicted by Taliban insurgents and other militants, the United Nations said last week.

The report said insurgents increasingly use roadside bombs, car bombs and suicide bombers in attacks that are "undertaken regardless of the impact on civilians."

In the latest such attack, the US military reported a roadside bomb killed five civilians on February 16 in Kandahar province.

Two of the worst civilian tolls from insurgent attacks came in a February suicide bombing at a dog fight in Kandahar that the UN said killed 67 civilians and a car bombing at the Indian Embassy last July that killed 55 civilians.

Commanders of US and other international troops in Afghanistan have long sought to emphasise how militant attacks kill far more civilians than the soldiers or officials targeted.

The UN said a record 2,118 civilians died from violence last year, up from 1,523 the previous year.

Its report blamed insurgent attacks for 55% of the deaths – 1,160, compared to 700 in 2007. It said US, NATO and Afghan government forces accounted for 39% of those killed – 828, compared to 629 in 2007.

No responsibility was determined for the remaining 130 deaths.

Taliban attacks have been increasing for three years, and President Barack Obama announced on February 17 that he had approved sending 17,000 soldiers and Marines this year to join 33,000 already in the fight.

"As the conflict has intensified, it is taking an increasingly heavy toll on civilians," the UN report said.

Source of friction

Civilian deaths have been a huge source of friction between the international military forces and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has made increasingly angry demands that US troops avoid killing ordinary Afghans. He says civilian deaths are undermining support for the anti-Taliban fight.

The UN report noted that despite new battlefield rules meant to reduce civilian casualties, US, NATO and Afghan troops killed 31% more civilians last year than in 2007.

That likely reflects the fact that more foreign troops are in the country. With more troops engaging in clashes, more air strikes are used, increasing the chances that ordinary Afghans are killed.

The UN report said 552 of the civilian deaths attributed to foreign and government forces were inflicted by air strikes.

In an example of the complexity of some cases, the US-led coalition said that a "precision strike" overnight in Herat province killed a Taliban commander and other insurgents.

Police chief Ekremuddin Yawar put the death toll at five men, six women and two children. He said the attack hit a tent and two vehicles far from a residential area, but it was difficult to know whether to classify the women and children as militants.

The UN report cited a US raid on the western town of Azizabad last August that a UN investigation concluded killed 92 civilians, including 62 children. A separate US inquiry said 33 civilians were killed.

After that and other high-profile civilian death cases, the top US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, announced a directive in September meant to reduce such deaths. He ordered commanders to consider breaking away from a firefight in populated areas rather than pursue militants into villages.

In another step aimed at reducing deaths of ordinary people, the American and Afghan militaries announced earlier this month that more Afghan soldiers would take part in US operations.

A NATO spokesman, Major Martin O'Donnell, said McKiernan's directive was probably made too late in the year to have an effect. "I think the fruits of those initiatives are yet to be seen," he said.

Lacking clarity and coordination

A US-based group that advocates for civilians in conflict said in another report released on February 17 that "the lack of a clear, coordinated strategy to address civilian losses has been a leading source of anger and resentment toward military forces" in Afghanistan.

"The international coalition in Afghanistan is losing public support, one fallen civilian at a time," said CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.

The US military and other members of the NATO-led force make some condolence payments to families of civilians accidentally killed. But CIVIC said that a "significant number" of families receive no help and that anger is especially strong when no help is provided.

"Every family with losses not recognised and addressed is another obstacle to Afghanistan's stabilisation and development," the report said.

The CIVIC report urged the Pentagon to create a position to address civilian casualties and it said the NATO-led force should have a coordinated response to provide compensation to victims' families.

The article had originally appeared in Associated Press.