A Human Rights Watch reports says that rapid respond air strikes have caused high civilian casualties and is fueling a public backlash in Afghanistan.
“Rapid response air strikes have meant higher civilian casualties, while every bomb dropped in populated areas amplifies the chance of a mistake,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch in the 43-page report.
“Mistakes by the US and NATO have dramatically decreased public support for the Afghan government and the presence of international forces providing security to Afghans,” report added.
The report also indicates that civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and NATO air strikes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007.
In 2006, at least 929 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting related to the armed conflict. Of those, at least 699 died during Taliban attacks (including suicide bombings and other bombings unlawfully targeting civilians) and at least 230 died during US or NATO attacks.
Of the latter, 116 were killed by US or NATO air strikes. In 2007, at least 1,633 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting related to the armed conflict.
Of those, some 950 died during attacks by the various insurgent forces, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda. At least 321 were killed by US or NATO air strikes. Thus, civilian deaths from US and NATO air strikes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007.
Human Rights Watch criticized the poor response by US officials when civilian deaths occur.
Prior to conducting investigations into air strikes causing civilian loss, US officials often immediately deny responsibility for civilian deaths or place all blame on the Taliban, the reports says.
US investigations conducted have been unilateral, ponderous, and lacking in transparency, undercutting rather than improving relations with local populations and the Afghan government.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:23 am
People, pray hard.Alex Jones is getting tired people, he cant go on like this too much longer without our help. We must assist him in new and creative ways. And stop all this speculation about AJ being a secret agent for the NWO. Each of us has a hidden sixth sense we sometimes call our “gut” feeling. Now you know damn well Alex is not in league with these child molesting globalist pig sphincters. So the guy is not perfect, neither are you, so the guy cant sponser every little pipe-dream Truth project that people call in with telling Alex “you need to start a….” or “you need to assemble a team of…” or “Alex, you should start your own nation-state and get everyone to….” , jee freakin wiz people, Alex is already doing 1000X more than any of us is, and yet we call him everyday with our 2 bong hit ideas to save the world. Then if he does not coddle and baby the fragile caller with kid gloves, he gets accused of being in every secret evil cabal on the planet. The guy is human. He is awesome, he is one in a billion, but he is human, so cut him some freakin slack lead-chips. Next time all you armchair World Saviors come up with the master plan to save us all and defeat the New World Order, DO IT YOURSELF, instead of trying to put it on Alex Jones’ already overflowing plate. Stop not using your gut man. Trust yourself. Unplug once in awhile. Check out Survivalistseeds.com and Big John Lipscombs awesome website DontTreadOnMe.tv Alex Jones and Big John Lipscomb are the New World Order’s worst nightmare. Now lets get creative, lets pray hard and implement workable action-plans to educate the people and shine LIGHT into the shadowy places. You and Me, we can do this. Lets do the right thing, for the kids and the coming generations who will inherit one hell of a freakin trainwreck of a world, IF we dont man-up and get some cutting edge publicity for the cause. Now,… I am going to pray and meditate, and discover what I can do to make the world more sane and balanced than it is now. Isvara strengthen and guide us to victory over evil. Through LOVE. I am becoming stronger everyday. My faith is growing with each beat of this heart. The roadblocks layed out by the NWO will not stop us, each attack they send makes me stronger. Their plan will backfire. Their curses will come back at them 10x more powerful.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Does Anyone care ? Not even Karzai cares .
November 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
From what I have heard under our criminal commander in chief, George W. Bush the US and NATO forces have killed far more civilians in Afghanistan then they have killed or captured the intended enemy there. Many are convinced that the collateral damage is the Bush administrations mechanism for of insuring the Military Industrial Complex’s job security. We are unarguably creating an abundance of enemies where but a few previously existed.