8 September 2008, Human Rights Watch: "Troops in Contact": Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan (PDF)
More Afghans Being Killed, Report Says
By CARLOTTA GALL
September 8, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Civilian deaths caused by United States and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan nearly tripled last year from 2006, fueling a public backlash, a report by Human Rights Watch said Monday.
The report also blamed the Taliban, who have staged a broad offensive across half the country since 2006, for endangering Afghans' lives "by deploying their forces in populated villages" and by using civilians as human shields.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said the behavior of insurgents did not excuse those dropping the bombs and firing the missiles.
"Mistakes by the U.S. and NATO have dramatically decreased public support for the Afghan government and the presence of international forces providing security to Afghans," Brad Adams, the group's director for Asia, said in a statement.
The report singled out Special Operations forces for using tactics that cause civilian casualties, like working in small, lightly armed units that rely on air support for backup.
The report said that an estimated 321 civilians died from American and NATO airstrikes in 2007, compared with 116 in 2006. In the first seven months of 2008, the latest period with data available, the number of Afghans killed in airstrikes reached 119, it said.
American and NATO forces instituted tactical changes that reduced the rate of civilian casualties in the latter months of 2007 and into this year, though the numbers spiked again this summer, Human Rights Watch said. Most of the deaths occurred when troops came into contact with insurgents and requested air support, not as a result of planned strikes, it said.
Human Rights Watch said it had gathered the casualty numbers from news reports and the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, or ANSO, a nongovernmental organization that collects and analyzes information on the security situation for aid organizations. The airstrikes have also caused extensive damage to homes and displaced large numbers of people, Human Rights Watch said.
American forces serve under two separate command structures in Afghanistan: a United Nations mandate as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, and an American military command as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes counterterrorism operations and training of the Afghan Army and the police.