Afghans blame foreign forces as civilian deaths double
Afghans are being killed in record numbers as the surge of U.S.-led foreign troops wages a massive new counterinsurgency campaign that has also destroyed thousands of homes and farms. The worsening tally compiled by the United Nations casts doubts on President Barack Obama’s decision to triple U.S. troop numbers to more than 100,000 in a concerted campaign to win Afghan hearts and minds. Although the UN report confirms what Canadian and U.S. military commanders have said for years – that the Taliban kill far more civilians – it also makes clear that Afghans blame foreign forces.
There’s "a greater perception by the wider Afghan community that the presence of international forces is responsible for higher levels of insecurity, is the cause for greater numbers of civilian casualties regardless of the perpetrator, and that international forces act with impunity," says the report, jointly compiled and published annually by the UN and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Blaming the U.S.-led foreign troops – after a decade of steadily worsening violence and scaled-up combat – isn’t only the view of ordinary Afghans. "Civilian casualties are a main cause of worsening the relationships between Afghanistan and the U.S.," an enraged Afghan President Hamid Karzai said after American attack helicopters killed nine young boys gathering firewood, the latest in a long series of gruesome mistakes that attract huge attention in and outside of Afghanistan. "People are tired of these things and apologies and condemnations are not healing any pain."
AWIP: Afghan civilian deaths at record high: UN