Global General

UN: Taliban cause Afghan civilian deaths to soar

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-13 18:00

KABUL: The number of Afghan civilians who died in war-related violence last year soared to the highest annual level since the conflict began in 2001, the UN said Wednesday, while deaths attributed to allied forces dropped 30 percent -- a key US goal for winning over the Afghan people.

Unrelenting violence, which has defied a usual lull in the winter, has highlighted concern that casualties will rise as the US and NATO send 37,000 more troops to try to stabilize the country. Civilian casualties have been a sensitive subject in Afghanistan, with US forces frequently accused of killing noncombatants in airstrikes.

Nearly half of the Afghan civilian casualties occurred in southern Afghanistan, which has seen intense fighting as US and allied troops seek to oust the Taliban and other insurgents, the UN said in a report. It said previously stable areas, such as Kunduz province and elsewhere in the northeast, also have witnessed increasing insecurity.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said 2,412 civilians were killed in 2009 -- a 14 percent increase over the 2,118 who died in 2008. Another 3,566 civilians were wounded.

Seventy percent of the killings, or 1,681, were blamed on insurgents while 25 percent, or 596, were attributed to pro-government forces, the report said. The remaining 135 deaths could not be attributed to either side but were civilians caught in the crossfire or killed by unexploded ordnance.

The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has ordered troops to use airstrikes judiciously and take other measures to reduce civilian casualties following widespread public outrage over civilian deaths.

Still, each new report of civilians killed unleashes raw emotions that highlight a growing impatience among the Afghan people with coalition forces' inability to secure the nation.

The number of civilians killed by pro-government forces, including US airstrikes, decreased by 28 percent over the previous year, the report found. Airstrikes still killed 359 civilians, or 60 percent of the deaths attributed to pro-government forces and 15 percent of civilian deaths overall.

"This decrease reflects measures taken by international military forces to conduct operations in a manner that reduces the risk posed to civilians," it said.

A survey released this week found that 42 percent of the 1,534 Afghan respondents now blame the violence on the Taliban -- up from 27 percent a year ago. Seventeen percent blame the US, NATO or the Afghan security forces, down from 36 percent a year ago. But 66 percent said airstrikes by the US and international forces were unacceptable because they endangered too many innocent civilians, even though they might help defeat militants.

The survey, commissioned by ABC News, the BBC and ARD German TV, was conducted from December 11 to December 23 by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research in Kabul, a subsidiary of D3 Systems Inc. in Vienna, Va. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"The thinking in the past up until this past year was that we need to go ahead and deal with the insurgency and we will take a calculated risk in terms of collateral damage," said Kamran Bokhari, an analyst with the US-based global intelligence firm Stratfor. "That has somewhat shifted where more caution is being exercised."

But he predicted the escalation of the US mission in Afghanistan would result in even more casualties.

"Civilians are going to be caught in the middle," he said. "So the numbers are going to go up."

The UN said more than half the number of civilian deaths were a result of suicide attacks and other bombings as well as assassinations and executions. The rest were largely due to rocket attacks and civilians caught in crossfire.

Those targeted include community elders, former military personnel, doctors, teachers and construction workers as well as employees of the UN and non-governmental organizations.

"Through these actions, the armed opposition has demonstrated a significant disregard for the suffering inflicted on civilians," the report said.

NATO forces also conducted a number of ground operations that caused civilian casualties, including search and seizure operations that often involved excessive use of force, destruction of property and cultural insensitivity, particularly toward women, according to the report.

The UN mission maintains a database on civilian casualties but does not break down responsibility for particular incidents other than attributing them to insurgents or pro-government forces.

It tracks the numbers with human rights teams based in 20 of the 34 provinces that investigate casualty reports on the ground, including traveling to the other provinces. It also works closely with the Afghan human rights commission, which operates in all provinces.