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Afghan War Spreads to Residential Areas: UN Report
GENEVA - The Afghan battlefield is spreading into residential areas where more people are being killed by air strikes, car bombs and suicide attacks, according to a U.N. report published on Friday.
File photo shows a British soldier talking with Afghan children during a patrol on the outskirts of Kabul. (AFP/File/Shah Marai) The U.N. Assistance Mission to Afghanistan said that 1,013 civilians were killed on the sidelines of their country's armed conflict from January to the end of June, compared to 818 in the first half of 2008 and 684 in the same period in 2007.
Commenting on the report, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said it was critical that steps be taken to shield Afghan communities from fighting.
"All parties involved in this conflict should take all measures to protect civilians, and to ensure the independent investigation of all civilian casualties, as well as justice and remedies for the victims," the South African said.
Taliban fighters and their allies were named responsible for 59 percent of bystander deaths, caused mainly by roadside blasts, and Afghan government and international forces were also faulted for errant air strikes that claimed hundreds of lives.
"Both anti-government elements and pro-government forces are responsible for the increase in civilian casualties," the human rights report said, arguing that tactical changes in the war had put more innocent people in the cross-fire.
Insurgents, who previously targeted the Afghan military and NATO troops with frontal attacks and ambushes, are now employing "guerrilla-like measures" in residential zones "to deliberately blur the distinction between combatants and civilians."
This shift, it said, is "what appears to be an active policy aimed at drawing a military response to areas where there is a high likelihood that civilians will be killed or injured."
FURTHER CASUALTIES LIKELY
Afghan and international forces have launched more operations in areas where ordinary Afghans live, killing people and damaging homes, assets and infrastructure, the report said.
The United Nations warned that resistance to a U.S. troop surge and efforts to disrupt August elections could lead to more loss of life in Afghanistan, where war has been waged since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for having sheltered al Qaeda militants.
"Given the pattern of the conflict so far, further significant civilian casualties in the coming months are likely," the human rights report concluded.
The U.N. tolls are based on witness testimonies, military and local leader interviews, hospital visits, and photographic and film evidence as well as media and secondary-source reports.
The latest report said 200 civilians have been killed since the start of the year in 40 air strikes by pro-government forces. May was especially bloody, with 63 civilian deaths in one aerial bombardment and a total of 81 deaths over the month.
"While the number of deadly air strike incidents remains low overall, when they do occur they can claim a significant number of lives," the U.N. study found.
It also raised concerns about raids in which people died, and said "there have been reports of a number of joint Afghan and international military forces operations in which excessive use of force has allegedly resulted in civilian deaths."
But it said pro-government forces -- who until last year were responsible for the bulk of Afghan civilian deaths -- seemed to have clamped down on "force protection incidents" where civilians are killed after failing to follow instructions when nearing military convoys, sites or checkpoints.
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11 Comments so far
Show All80 Pakistanis died from one drone attack on a funeral when the braindead were paying attention to the Jackson gibberish.
And as we see from another CD article the USA is removing the Taliban and allowing the authorized government in Helmend Provence to resume its systematic raping and pillaging.
Any poster who works for the MIC is directly supporting this fiendish endeavor.
One poster said we need to "clean up Afghanistan" that language and mentality is one of the Nazis.
With this policy unresisted by the USA populace and on the heels of the USA instigated invasion and civil war in Iraq, plus Congress' blessing of the Gaza Holocaust, one can only hope the USA reaches its logical conclusion most speedily.
And in this article there is no mention of the reasons behinds this. Rumsfeld left Afghanistan behind because it was not target rich enough for shock and awe. That equals less dead.
Obama has got to show that the democrats are not soft on National security( democrats and African-Americans have bigger dicks).
As there are not enough targets all that is left are civilians. Mow them down and drag out Madine Albright to tell us that it is all worth it.
I guess we have to bomb those funerals and weddings over there so they don't die or marry over here. Thank God we have an anti-war president with American values at heart.
May those who shed men's blood--by men their blood shall be shed (paraphrase} Gen. 9:6
Dastardly American murderers and terrorists!! Evil has taken over the US and it's darkness is claiming the hearts and minds of the citizens, it already claimed the souls of our politicians and corporate media. The pit is indeed deep and dark and filled with all things evil. America and Israel are revealing the terrain of hell and it isn't pretty!
And they called it "change."
Rapacious Middle East hegemony. Yet more senseless death and destruction, the gift that keeps on giving.
What is most sad is that "America's" infrastructure is in tatters, our bridges and roads are crumbling, and we're spending how much killing and maiming innocent Afghan men, woman and children, and our brave troops who are also being killed and maimed?
No thanks, keep the change Mac
There is an undeclared war waged by the USA on Islam.
Americans are killing Muslims and contaminating their World with Depleted Uranium.
This is not about terrorists but about making tribes and peoples different from our culture into terrorists in order to justify killing and stealing their natural resources and keeping the US Military Industrial Complex in profits.
America is guilty of genocidal war crimes.
Americans via the Pentagon may think their software and their remote controlled drones and stealth bombers are fun toys but real women and children are dying.
Resisting occupation with a suicide bomb is brave the real terrorists are in Las Vegas touching a computer button to send the bomb from the drone to kill a poor innocent Afghan family while they sleep.
Great post max. Perfect. I wish I wrote it. Thanks
That headline = Afghan war spreads to residential areas- could have run in every newspaper since October 2001. This horror show began with u.s. dropping many bombs all over Afghanistan, hitting village after village. The natives screamed in rage and grief "WHAT ARE YOU BOMBING US FOR? WHAT DID WE DO?" these people lived in mud huts, could not read or write, did not even know there was a "New York"much less a world trade center. AND the u.s was usong its biggest bombs- called big blu or daisy cutter or mother of all bombs. Plus of course cluster bombs.
that was the first months- maybe the first year. Since then it's been trying to attack some suspected Talibs, then calling in air strikes which almost always means more civilians get hit.
JUST GET OUT!
that picture alone:
JUST TO LOOK At those children ... so lovable ...and probably always wondering WHY there are foreigners with guns and bombing them and they have to run and hide , instead of play and learn good things....and grow up well..........
is the starkest reminder of the EVIL of wars and of INVASIONS and OCCUPATIONS of foreign lands .
That headline = Afghan war spreads to residential areas- could have run in every newspaper since October 2001. This horror show began with u.s. dropping many bombs all over Afghanistan, hitting village after village. The natives screamed in rage and grief "WHAT ARE YOU BOMBING US FOR? WHAT DID WE DO?" these people lived in mud huts, could not read or write, did not even know there was a "New York"much less a world trade center. AND the u.s was usong its biggest bombs- called big blu or daisy cutter or mother of all bombs. Plus of course cluster bombs.
that was the first months- maybe the first year. Since then it's been trying to attack some suspected Talibs, then calling in air strikes which almost always means more civilians get hit.
JUST GET OUT!
Re: AmeriKKKa's genocide in Afghanistan.
It's no surprise to see genocidal America murdering hundred's more in Afghanistan after the 1+ million innocents murdered in Iraq (87% of them innocent men, women and children) - with it's close knit relationship with the Jewish genociders of Gaza/2009.
'Birds of a feather?'
As for me, an ex-fighter pilot (F-104C 8 years, who once gave my all for a decent nation, now turned rogue nation in the 1970's) I support the Taliaban and hope that the increase in coffins heading for Dover AFB (and Heathrow London) in the wee hours of the morning will serve to convince Obama that his pre-election promises of pulling us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, now abrogated, will not be forgiven.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
DBA: IDidntVote4TheBassTerd@msn.com
(My "w" handle)