Afghan civilian deaths up 14% in 2009

Photo: Afghans look at coffins of three of four people killed in a NATO overnight raid in Qara Bagh district through the Ghazni city, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. NATO said Thursday that four insurgents were killed during a raid in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province the night before, but villagers insisted the dead were civilians. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad)

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has reported that there were over 2,400 civilian deaths in 2009, with thousands more injured. This is an increase of 14% over prior years. The Taliban are responsible for killing the most civilians, mainly by IEDs and suicide attacks. There were also some targeted killings. The US Marines and pro-government Afghan forces are also doing some of the killing.

This is continuing. Here is a report from this year, 2010, where US Marines and Afghan troops fired on protesters for the second time within a week.

Troops fire on crowd in Afghanistan

At least five Afghan civilians were wounded when a combined force of Afghan troops and US Marines opened fire on a crowd at the gate to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan's most volatile province, Nato said today. The incident, which took place on Wednesday but was not reported until Friday, was the second demonstration to turn violent in two days in Helmand's Garmsir district, suggesting mounting civil unrest in a part of the country where US Marines under Nato command made major advances last year.

This incident happened a day after US Marines fired on protesters in Helmand province. The local Afghans reported that eight people were killed and thirteen were injured in that incident.

The conflict is spreading, it is getting worse, and the civilians are the ones to pay the price - as always.

Here is a report from the UN Integrated Regional Information Network.

Afghans in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Uruzgan and Zabul, where the conflict is the most intense, were the most severely affected, the report said.

The average monthly number of security incidents was 960 in 2009 - up from 741 in 2008 (a 29.6 percent rise). “The conflict has intensified: it has spread, affecting previously tranquil areas, such as in the northeast, and deepened as it has moved from rural to urban areas.”

The conflict has also destroyed infrastructures and livelihoods, displaced communities, and eroded the quality and availability of basic services in the country, it said.

This turns out to result in the killing of three children a day (on average). Children are the biggest victims in wars - as always. According to an Afghan human rights watchdog, more than 1,050 children were killed last year alone. Again, the Taliban were responsible for the majority of the deaths (around 64%) with NATO and pro-government Afghans responsible for the rest.

We certainly are not doing a very good job of protecting the children of Afghanistan. And, in some cases, it is US forces that are killing them off.

Afghan war kills three children a day

Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. "At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways," ARM director Ajmal Samadi said. Children died in suicide attacks and roadside bombings -- at the crux of the Taliban's arsenal against US, NATO and Afghan troops fighting the increasingly virulent insurgency as it spreads across the impoverished country.

…….. Reports that foreign forces killed eight students in Kunar province on December 26 caused widespread outrage, including US flag-burning demonstrations in two cities, though reports of what happened varied widely.

2009 has been the deadliest year for Afghans since the US-led invasion and occupation. This has been the worst year ever for the Afghan people – our troops and NATO troops are not protecting the civilians from the Taliban. And the increase in US troops there is not making the situation better.

Oftentimes, the civilians get caught in the crossfire. About a third of the time, they are directly killed by US or NATO or pro-government Afghan forces. Many more are wounded.

’09 Deadliest year for Afghans, UN says

Indeed, airstrikes are the main cause of civilian deaths by the coalition. Even with the new guidelines, which took effect in the middle of last year, 359 Afghans were killed in airstrikes in 2009, the United Nations survey found. One of the worst of these came on Sept. 4, when German troops called in an airstrike after militants hijacked a fuel convoy near the northern city of Kunduz. But the trucks had stalled in a riverbed, and local residents had gathered around them. The bombing killed at least 72 civilians, the United Nations report said.

But no one can claim that the US military is not learning from their mistakes. Why, take a look at this amazing evidence of insight to Afghan culture, from the same article as above:

“In the Afghan culture, a man’s home is more than just his residence,” a draft of the new guidance said. “It represents his family, and protecting it is closely intertwined with his honor. He has been conditioned to respond aggressively whenever he perceives his home or honor is threatened.

Of course, here in the USA, if armed foreign troops showed up in the middle of the night, the typical US male would invite them in, and then serve them tea and cookies. He would never respond aggressively!! Why, I am sure he would be the perfect example of understanding, patience, respect and good manners to the armed foreigners who disturbed his sleep. And that is because no one in the USA would think of their home as something other than a simple residence to eat and sleep in. And, here in the USA, families are easily interchangeable, as our divorce rate shows. The article goes on to state:

“We should not be surprised that night operations elicit such a response,” the guidance said, “which we then often interpret as the act of an insurgent.”

Why, yes, I can see why they might get confused, since US males would respond in a totally passive and deferential way to armed foreigners inside the typical American “residence”. No one would confuse them with “insurgents”.

Now, I wrote most of this blog post last weekend. The story just above is from January 14, 2010. But, apparently a week later, they are still learning the lesson that they claimed to have learned already. Because today, the US and NATO forces said they are going to “tighten” the rules for home invasions in Afghanistan in the middle of the night. This report (exclusive to AP!) came after four people were killed in a NATO raid just last night. The locals insist that the dead were unarmed civilians.

It’s an article from the WaPo, so of course there is no mention of the times in the recent past that the US military said the very same things. That would be way too hard for a SERIOUS newspaper in the US to handle. Here’s what they named the story:

AP Exclusive: US to tighten rules on Afghan raids

NATO forces in Afghanistan are preparing to limit night raids on private homes, even if it means losing some tactical advantage, to curb rising public anger.

Oh, it’s an exclusive all right. Exclusively stupid to repeat what the US military said last week, but didn’t mean, and then pretend the US military never said it before. Bet they have another ‘exclusive’ next week.

The US military had this to say:

The U.S. and allied nations have made protecting the population a priority over the use of massive firepower as they seek to undermine support for the Taliban.

Hey, how’s that working out? Well, another 500 Afghans came out to demonstrate against the US and current Afghan government TODAY. I think we can mark them as NON-supporters of the current US project there in Afghanistan.

Sure glad those US military guys are learning something there after 8 FUCKING YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN. (Or, are they? How often do they have to report learning this lesson?)

The anatomy of America’s defeat in Afghanistan

(h/t to Iraq today for the above link.)

Afghans protest the results of a night raid