U.N. Says Afghan Civilian Deaths Increase by 40 Percent

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February 17th, 2009 8:09 pm
U.N. Says Afghan Civilian Deaths Increase by 40 Percent

By Alan Cowell / New York Times
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The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan leaped by about 40 percent last year over the previous one, according to a survey released Tuesday by the United Nations, the latest measure of how the intensifying violence between the Taliban and American-led forces is ravaging that country.
According to the United Nations report, 2,118 civilians were killed in war-related violence in 2008, the most since the Taliban were ousted in November 2001. That is up from 1,523 civilians killed in 2007.

The report found that civilian fatalities were higher in every month but one, and that that the fighting had begun to carry on through the winter, a season that used to be relatively quiet.
The findings promised to deepen concern about the American effort in Afghanistan, which looms as one of the principle foreign policy challenges of the Obama administration.

President Obama is considering whether to double the American troop deployment in Afghanistan to about 60,000 troops. Afghan leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, have expressed frustration about civilian casualties, saying they are undermining public support for the war against Taliban insurgents.

The majority of civilian deaths were caused by the Taliban and other anti-government insurgents, the survey found. Most of those deaths were caused by suicide bombers and roadside bombs, which, the report found, were often detonated with the obvious intention of killing as many civilians as possible. The report also found that Taliban fighters often attacked American-backed forces in densely populated areas.

The civilian deaths inflicted by the Taliban represented an increase of more than 60 percent from the previous year, the survey found.

Violence caused by Afghan government forces and those of the American-led coalition killed 828 people last year, up sharply from the previous year. The majority of those civilians were killed in airstrikes and raids on villages.

The report singled out special forces and other military units operating outside the normal chains of command. That means their presence and movements are not always known by regular field commanders.

Special forces groups like Navy Seals and paramilitary units operated by the CIA often conduct raids in Afghanistan, and often at night.

The report also said that airstrikes that went awry were often those that were called in by troops under attack.

The United Nations report helps shed light on one of the most divisive issues between the American-led coalition and the Afghan government of Mr. Karzai.

Emblematic of these tensions was the incident in the western Afghan village of Azizabad last August. In that incident, an American AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected Taliban compound. American commanders initially insisted that only 5 to 7 civilians were killed. But reporters visiting the scene saw evidence of a higher death toll, and a United Nations investigation pointed to evidence it considered conclusive that about 90 civilians were killed, some 75 of them women and children.

A subsequent American report by a Pentagon-based general concluded that more than 30 civilians died.

In the aftermath of the Azizabad incident, American and other coalition commanders tightened the rules for delivering airstrikes. The United Nations survey said it was unclear whether those new rules would have a lasting effect on reducing civilian deaths.

But civilians have more to fear from the insurgents, the United Nations report said. The report said: "Insurgents deliberately base their operations inside civilian areas so as to use the local population as camouflage, or for the purpose of attracting a military response by pro-government military forces which might result in civilian casualties."

The report described a Taliban campaign of assassination to intimidate anyone who associates with the Afghan government. One grisly example comes from the southern city of Kandahar, where 24 clerics who joined a government-backed council have been killed in recent months, many of them in the downtown. The report noted 271 assassinations for the year.

The survey also documented the Taliban's campaign to intimidate children, and particularly girls, into staying away from school. More than 640 schools had ceased to function, the survey said, depriving some 230,000 children of education.

 

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U.S. Concedes Afghan Attack Mainly Killed Civilians
Published: February 21, 2009

RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

KABUL, Afghanistan — An airstrike by the United States-led military coalition killed 13 civilians and 3 militants last Tuesday in western Afghanistan, not “up to 15 militants” as was initially claimed by American forces, military officials here said Saturday.

The civilians killed included three children, six women and four men in the Gozara district of Herat Province, in addition to three people suspected of being Taliban fighters, according to an aide to the provincial governor.

American and NATO forces have come under increasing criticism from Afghans and political leaders in Kabul for the soaring number of civilians killed by airstrikes and fighting between Taliban and American-led forces.

The United Nations says civilian deaths rose nearly 40 percent last year to 2,118, the most in any year since the 2001 invasion that drove the Taliban from power. Most of the casualties last year were caused by the Taliban and other insurgents, the United Nations found, but 828 deaths were attributed to American, NATO and Afghan forces, mostly from airstrikes and village raids. Afghan officials fear the numbers will rise as more American troops deploy to the country.

Only five days before the deadly episode in Herat, Afghan and American commanders had hailed a new agreement that called for Afghan officials to have more input into the “planning and execution of counterterrorism missions” in hopes of minimizing civilian casualties.

But Naqib Arween, an aide to the Herat provincial governor, said there was no coordination with Afghan security officials in the province about the operation on Tuesday. He said the bombardment struck nomads in tents in a mountainous region of the province, which borders Iran.
Initially, American forces described the bombardment as a “precision strike” that hit an insurgent hide-out, killing as many as 15 militants. But the attack drew immediate protests from local Afghan officials who said that most of the people killed were innocent, and a military delegation was sent to investigate.
The statement issued by the military on Saturday did not explain why so many civilians had been killed. It did say that weapons and ammunition were found at the site, and that the investigation shows “how seriously we take our responsibility in conducting operations against militant targets and the occurrence of noncombatant casualties.”

In a separate episode, three “coalition service members” on patrol in Oruzgan Province in central Afghanistan were killed by a roadside bomb on Friday. Their names and nationalities were not released.

So far, 26 American service members and 13 from other countries in the coalition have been killed in Afghanistan this year, almost twice as many as the first two months of 2008, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks such fatalities.

Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting.

www.nytimes.com