NATO says killed 97 Afghan civilians in 2008

BRUSSELS  – NATO-led forces killed nearly 100 civilians in operations against militants in Afghanistan last year, the alliance said on Wednesday, while blaming insurgents for the deaths of 10 times that number.

Civilian casualties have eroded public support for President Hamid Karzai’s government and foreign troops backing it. It has also caused a rift between Karzai and his Western allies more than seven years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government.

In the past, NATO has not given any estimate of the number of civilian deaths caused by the 55,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) it leads in the country, but spokesman James Appathurai said it had completed an assessment.

“According to our military assessment … in 2008 NATO ISAF was responsible for 97 civilian casualties (fatalities),” he said.

He blamed the Taliban and other militants for 973, civilian deaths — 10 times that number.

An Afghan human rights body has issued figures based on U.N. estimates saying that nearly 700 civilians were killed in operations by foreign and Afghan government forces in the year up to October. Aside from NATO, forces in Afghanistan include a U.S.-led force specifically responsible for counter-terrorism.

NATO said this month it had tightened its rules of engagement in Afghanistan to cut civilian casualties, saying this was a humanitarian imperative and essential to maintaining public support for the presence of international forces.

The new rules stress the need for proportionate use of force and for Afghan forces to take the lead in searching Afghan homes and religious sites unless a clear danger is identified.

On Sunday, thousands of Afghans protested against Karzai and the United States over reports of fresh civilian deaths caused by U.S.-led troops during a raid against Taliban militants in the eastern province of Laghman.

The U.S. military said troops, backed by air support, had killed 15 militants. Karzai adviser Assadullah Wafa said 16 civilians, many of them children and women, had died.

Karzai, who has repeatedly urged foreign troops to coordinate operations with his government, last week termed civilian deaths as a main source of Afghanistan’s instability.

NATO has countered by saying that weak leadership and corruption were as much to blame for instability as the Taliban.